Elon Musk has launched a scathing attack on Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez after Spain became the latest country to ban social media for under 16s.
Announcing the move at the World Governments Summit in the UAE on Tuesday, Mr Sanchez declared that Spain will be protecting its youth “from the digital Wild West”.
Spain’s left-wing government has rolled out sweeping changes to its social media rules, including plans to hold tech bosses personally liable for “illegal or harmful content” on their platforms.
At the summit, Mr Sanchez branded social media as a hub of “addiction, abuse, pornography, manipulation [and] violence.”
“Today, our children are exposed to a space they were never meant to navigate alone,” he said.
“We will no longer accept that. We will protect them.”
But his words sparked fury from Elon Musk, who took to his X platform to blast Mr Sanchez.
The South Africa-born tech tycoon fumed: “Dirty Sanchez is a tyrant and a traitor to the people of Spain.”
Mr Sanchez declared that Spain will be protecting its youth ‘from the digital Wild West’
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He added that the Spanish leader is the “true fascist totalitarian”.
Concerns over online safety have surged amid the rapid spread of AI-generated material, particularly after reports that Mr Musk’s Grok chatbot produced non-consensual sexual images, including of minors.
However, experts remain divided over whether an Australia-style social media ban would benefit young people.
Jose Cesar Perales, a professor of experimental psychology at the University of Granada, affirmed there is no unanimous view that social media is inherently harmful to adolescents.
The announcement has sparked fury from Elon Musk, who took to his X platform to blast Mr Sanchez
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Mr Sanchez said prosecutors in Spain would assess whether Grok – along with TikTok and Instagram, owned by Meta – may have breached the law.
During the summit, he also launched a scathing attack on Mr Musk of using X to “amplify disinformation” over his government’s decision to grant legal status to around 500,000 undocumented migrants.
The new laws in Spain would also make it a criminal offence to manipulate algorithms to boost illegal content
Mr Sanchez said: “This is something created, promoted, and disseminated by certain actors whom we will investigate, as well as the platforms whose algorithms amplify disinformation in exchange for profit.
Experts remain divided over whether an Australia-style social media ban would benefit young people
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Public backing for tougher rules appears strong, with an Ipsos poll published in August showing 82 per cent of Spaniards support banning under-14s from social media, up from 73 per cent the previous year.
“Hiding behind code and claiming that technology is neutral is no longer acceptable.”
Australia has already become the first nation in the world to introduce a blanket social media ban for minors, with several governments closely watching the impact of the policy.
France, Denmark and Austria have all signalled they are considering national age limits of their own, while Britain is also weighing up a potential prohibition.
