SPAIN is launching a probe into AI-generated child abuse images on social media amid an escalating crackdown on US platforms.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez made the announcement on Tuesday, with platforms X, Meta and TikTok now facing investigation over what he called the ‘possible creation and spread of child pornography via AI.’
The probe, part of a broader push against US tech giants, comes just days after Sanchez revealed plans for a nationwide ban on social media for all children under 16.
READ MORE: Spain will ban social media for children aged under 16 to protect them from ‘digital Wild West’
In an X post early on Tuesday, Sanchez said: “These platforms are harming the mental health, dignity, and rights of our sons and daughters.
“The State cannot allow this. The impunity of the giants must end.”
On February 6, Sanchez introduced a package of five measures aimed at tightening social media rules in Spain.
In his address, he alleged that X users had employed the platform’s AI, Grok, to generate three million ‘sexualised’ images in just 11 days – including more than 23,000 ‘involving minors.’
He said: “Today, our children are exposed to a space they were never meant to navigate alone: a space of addiction, abuse, pornography, manipulation, and violence.
“We will no longer accept that. We will protect them from the digital wild west.”
As part of his measures package, Sanchez called for age checks across all platforms and wider accountability for tech bosses.
The PM added he wanted Spain’s courts to treat algorithm manipulation and the spread of illegal material on social media as criminal offences.
The move drew criticism from tech billionaire Elon Musk, who blasted Spain’s leader as a ‘tyrant’, a ‘traitor of the people of Spain,’ and a ‘fascist.’
Sanchez hit back, saying Spain would not be ‘cowed by tech-oligarchs of the algorithm.’
On Tuesday last week, French authorities conducted a search of X’s Paris offices as part of an investigation into algorithm manipulation and possible foreign interference, in which Musk has been called to testify.
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