Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has unveiled a new government artificial intelligence tool that will classify social media sites based on the amount of hate speech they host.
The aim is to hold social media platforms accountable for how their algorithms amplify hate-inciting content, Pedro Sánchez stated, according to Politico.
"Hate is already dangerous, and social networks have turned it into a mass polarization weapon that ends up infiltrating daily life," said Sánchez at an International Summit against Hate and Digital Harassment. "Today, social networks are a failed state," he said.
The new system, known as HODIO, will analyze large volumes of data from social networks to measure the extent and spread of online hate speech.
The gathered information will be used to track how hate-inciting content evolves and spreads on platforms and will contribute to creating a ranking that will compare the amount of hate speech circulating on major networks. The index will be publicly available.
The Spanish Prime Minister stated that the initiative aims to hold platforms accountable for how their algorithms amplify polarizing content and added that the Government intends to introduce an offense for the "algorithmic amplification" of hate speech.
Sánchez launched a broader campaign last month for stricter digital regulation and wants to ban access to social networks for users under 16.
The European Union has implemented regulations such as the Digital Services Act to combat illegal and harmful online content. The legislation has drawn criticism from the US administration, which sees it as a form of online censorship.
The new Spanish tool for hate speech comes at a time when Sánchez repeatedly clashed last week with US President Donald Trump on the issue of the conflict in Iran.
T.D.