Overview
- Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced a proposal to bar people under 16 from social networks and to require strict age checks, outlining the plan at the World Government Summit in Dubai.
- The package would criminalize algorithmic manipulation and the amplification of illegal content and could hold platform executives personally liable; prosecutors will review possible violations by X’s Grok, TikTok and Instagram.
- Elon Musk responded on X by calling Sánchez a tyrant and traitor and later labeled him a fascist totalitarian, escalating tensions over the proposed rules.
- Australia’s law is already in force, with Snapchat reporting about 415,000 account suspensions there and warning of significant enforcement gaps due to age‑verification errors of two to three years; the company backs app‑store level verification.
- Austria plans a draft law by summer with steep penalties and demands for algorithm transparency, while other European countries debate similar age limits as privacy experts caution that bans are easy to evade and raise surveillance concerns.