Spain advances social media and AI rules despite intense US tech lobbying pressure

Spain holds the line on social media and AI rules as US tech lobbying intensifies

Digital transformation minister Óscar López says 'the profit of four tech companies cannot come at the expense of the rights of millions' as Madrid's regulatory package moves through parliament. Spain's digital transformation minister, Óscar López, said on Wednesday that Madrid would press ahead with a slate of rules targeting social media platforms and high-risk artificial intelligence systems, despite what he described as intensifying lobbying from American technology companies. "The profit of four tech companies cannot come at the expense of the rights of millions," López told reporters, citing pressure from "powerful voices" against proposals that would constrain high-risk AI and force platforms to disclose how their recommendation algorithms work. The push has been gathering for months. In February, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced from the World Government Summit in Dubai that Spain would ban social media for users under 16, an amendment now winding through parliament as part of an existing digital child-protection bill. Sánchez also pledged to criminalise the manipulation of algorithms to amplify illegal content and to hold executives personally liable for failures to remove it. Separately, Spain has approved draft legislation curbing AI deepfakes, setting 16 as the age of consent for image use and banning unauthorised AI-generated likenesses in advertising. In February, prosecutors opened a probe into major platforms over AI-generated child sexual abuse material distributed on their services, Al Jazeera reported. The regulatory programme sits inside a wider European arc. EU lawmakers struck a political deal in March on amendments to the bloc's AI Act, including a prohibition on non-consensual intimate deepfakes and a delay of the high-risk system deadline to December 2027. Madrid has positioned itself as one of the bloc's more forward-leaning capitals on enforcement, in part by building out the El Escorial data centre as a sovereign-cloud and AI platform announced by López earlier this year. Industry opposition has been substantial. López did not name the companies he had in mind, but US filings show 11 American technology companies spent roughly $20 million on federal lobbying in the first three months of 2026, averaging $226,000 a day, according to figures reported by industry trackers. The Spanish minister suggested the same pressure had reached Madrid, where it has so far failed to slow the legislative timetable. Not all of Spain's moves have landed cleanly. The under-16 proposal drew a personal attack from Elon Musk, who called Sánchez a "fascist totalitarian" on X in February, and child-rights groups have criticised parts of the package as more performative than enforceable. Verification systems strong enough to meet López's stated standard, of "real barriers, not just checkboxes," remain technically and legally contested across Europe. What is no longer contested is the direction of travel. Australia, France, Denmark and now Spain have legislated or announced age-gated access to social platforms within roughly a year of each other, and Sánchez has been pushing for an EU-wide adoption through what he calls a "coalition of the digitally willing." The Spanish package, if it clears parliament intact, will be one of the more aggressive national tests of whether such rules can survive both lobbying and legal challenge. The under-16 amendment is expected to face its next parliamentary vote in the coming weeks.

Spain Pushes Ahead With Social Media, AI Rules Despite Big Tech Lobbying Pressure

MADRID, May 13 (Reuters) - Spain will push ⁠ahead ⁠with new rules to ⁠make social networks and AI safer despite intense lobbying from the tech industry, its digital transformation minister Oscar Lopez told Reuters. "The profit of four tech companies cannot come at the expense of the rights of millions," he said, adding that "powerful voices" were lobbying against ⁠proposed regulation ⁠that would curb high-risk AI systems or force companies to disclose how their social media algorithms work. His comments echoed those by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who on Tuesday said the Commission was targeting addictive and harmful design practices by social media firms in its upcoming Digital Fairness Act. Amid similar moves by Australia, France ⁠and ⁠Greece, Spain in February announced ⁠plans to ban social media use by teenagers - with a bill already working its way through parliament - and to adopt ⁠legislation holding executives personally responsible for hate speech on their platforms. The move provoked sharp criticism from X platform owner Elon Musk, who called Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez a tyrant and a totalitarian. Lopez said Spain wanted a common European approach as rules are ⁠easier to enforce across the bloc of more than 400 million citizens than ⁠country-by-country, and warned that backers of a laissez-faire approach would one day regret defending "the law of the jungle." He linked the push to growing concern over cyberbullying, sexual harassment and AI-generated sexual deepfakes targeting children, especially girls, describing the impact on minors as a mental health pandemic. Spain has positioned itself as one of Europe's most vocal advocates for what Lopez called "trustworthy AI," a model he said should protect privacy, democracy, minors and public safety rather ⁠than prioritise speed or profit. Asked whether authorities should be able to identify people who use pseudonyms online if they commit crimes, Lopez said anonymity should not shield them from liability. "What isn't legal in the real world cannot be legal in the virtual world. Full stop." (Reporting by David Latona; Editing by Andrei Khalip and Bernadette Baum)