“The technology that was intended to free us has become the tool of our own oppression.”
DAVOS, Switzerland — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said on Wednesday that tech billionaires want to use social media “to overthrow democracy” — adding he’ll push EU leaders to take action.
“The technology that was intended to free us has become the tool of our own oppression,” he said during a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “The social media that was supposed to bring unity, clarity and democracy have instead given us division, vice and a reactionary agenda.”
Sánchez said that limits on the length of texts and videos, as well as the absence of fact-checking measures, allow disinformation to flourish on social media platforms. He accused tech barons of designing their sites to “divide and manipulate” society in order to advance their personal political agendas by replacing “votes with likes.”
The socialist politician lamented that the same sites that had initially helped unite people around the world and empower social justice efforts, such as the #MeToo movement and the Fridays for Future climate protests, were now being used to concentrate “power and wealth in the hands of just a few … at the cost of our democracies.”
“What truly limits democracy is the power of the elites,” he said. “It is the power of those who think that because they are rich, they are above the law and can do anything. That is why, my friends, that is why the tech billionaires want to overthrow democracy.”
Sánchez said that at the next meeting of European Union leaders in Brussels he will propose that the bloc move to “make social media great again” by imposing regulations and going after their billionaire owners. Among other measures he proposed fighting bots and fake profiles by requiring that users digitally identify themselves, and using the Digital Services Act to go after tech barons whose sites undermine democracy.
“The owner of a small restaurant is held accountable if their food poisons customers,” he said. “Social media tycoons should be held accountable if their algorithms poison our societies.”