Sánchez wants to end anonymity on social networks and accuses ‘technomillionaires’ of being “enemies of freedom”

The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, wants to end anonymity on social networks. This was announced this afternoon during his participation in the Davos Summit, where he announced that he plans to share this idea officially in the coming days with the European Union. «I propose ending anonymity on social networks. In our countries, people cannot walk down the street with a mask, drive a car without a license or send a package without presenting an ID or buy a weapon without it. And we are allowing people to do what they want on social networks without linking their profiles to a real identity,” said Sánchez.

According to the leader, respect for the anonymity of users on the Internet, the fact that anyone can write anything on sites like responsible for their actions”: “Citizens have the right to privacy, but not to anonymity or impunity, because if that were the case it would not be possible to maintain social coexistence.”

Sánchez proposes as an alternative to force users and social networks to link their accounts with a European digital identity. In this way, “citizens could use a fake name or nickname if they wish, but if they commit a crime the authorities could link their account with a real name.” And in this way, it would be easy to reach them to “account.” From their point of view, the use of this European identity would prevent minors from accessing websites inappropriate for their age; a problem to which the Spanish government has been trying to find a solution for some time.

The President of the Government has also advocated forcing social networks to “open the black boxes of their algorithms”, with which companies decide what the user sees on the screen, to better understand how they work. Likewise, he harshly attacked the “small group of ‘technomillionaires'” who own these spaces, whom he accused of knowingly perverting the original spirit of the applications and for their own benefit. «Tech billionaires want to end democracy. The technology that was going to liberate us has become the instrument of our own oppression,” Sánchez said.

The leader also spent a good amount of time lamenting how social networks “are affecting the democratic system around the world.” He drew attention to how users with malicious purposes or nation states, making direct reference to Russia, exploit them to polarize society and to misinform. The culprits of this situation, again, would be the owners of these spaces, whom the president accused of not wanting to change the situation because the problematic content “is good for business.”