SPAIN will launch a tool to measure hate speech on digital platforms as part of a broader strategy to increase oversight of social media companies, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Wednesday.
The country announced a wider plan last month to regulate social media, including a ban on its use for younger teenagers and measures to hold platform executives accountable for illegal or hateful content hosted on their services.
The new tool, called HODIO — an acronym for Footprint of Hatred and Polarisation — will allow the government to systematically track the presence, amplification and impact of hate speech online- Sanchez said in a speech during the first International Forum Against Hate in Madrid.
READ MORE:
- Elon Musk calls Spain’s PM Pedro Sanchez a ‘tyrant’ and ‘fascist’ over proposed social media ban for children aged under 16
- Spain will ban social media for children aged under 16 to protect them from ‘digital Wild West’
Online hate was causing deep divisions in Spanish society, Sanchez stated, and it was important to start talking about the ‘footprint of hate’ in the same way society discusses the carbon footprint.
“We want to start talking about the impact of hate. When something is measured, it ceases to be invisible,” he said.
The tool’s results will be made public, so that citizens can see “who is blocking this content, who is looking the other way, and who is profiting from it,” Sanchez said.
The new tool, as he explained, will be ‘based on recognised academic criteria and will combine quantitative analysis and expert review to guarantee accuracy and representativeness’.
It will be applied to Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube and Facebook, the most popular platforms in Spain and will create a ‘public and transparent’ ranking that will people to see which of them contains the most content that incites hatred.
“We no longer surrender to the platforms; now they are the ones who will have to be accountable to societies. Let’s stop hate. Our mission is that we talk more about love and less about hate,” Sanchez said.
Click here to read more Spain News from The Olive Press.
