Pavel Durov and Elon Musk spoke out against banning social media for children in Spain

Telegram founder Pavel Durov and X (formerly Twitter) owner Elon Musk have sharply criticised the Spanish government's initiative to tighten regulations on social media, including banning social media for minors under the age of 16 and expanding the responsibility of digital platforms for content.

Durov said that these measures could turn Spain into a ‘total surveillance state’ under the guise of ‘protection.’ According to him, banning children from using social media undermines anonymity and ‘sets a precedent for tracking the identity of every user,’ as well as leading to mass data collection. ‘What starts with minors can spread to everyone, stifling open dialogue,’ he wrote.

Durov also criticised plans to introduce personal liability for digital platform executives for not removing content deemed illegal or hateful. He believes this will lead to excessive censorship, with platforms removing any controversial content to avoid sanctions, ‘suppressing political dissent, journalism and everyday opinions.’

The founder of Telegram believes that free discussion could disappear, as ‘governments will dictate what you see, suppressing opposing views and creating echo chambers.’ Durov adds that monitoring content for hate speech and punishing such posts could be used as a tool to suppress opposition.

At the end of his post, he called on users to ‘demand transparency and fight for their rights.’

After Durov's post, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez wrote on social network X: ‘Let the techno-oligarchs bark, Sancho, it's a sign that we're on the right track.’

Earlier, X owner and American billionaire Elon Musk called Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez a ‘true fascist totalitarian,’ as well as a “tyrant” and ‘traitor to the Spanish people’ because of his initiative to introduce stricter control over social networks. Musk wrote these posts on 3 February.

On the same day, French authorities raided X's Paris office as part of an investigation into possible algorithm manipulation and the use of the Grok artificial intelligence chatbot. X accused the French authorities of ‘abuse of office aimed at achieving illegal political goals.’

This is not the first time Musk has criticised Sánchez. In January, the billionaire reposted a post on X claiming that the Spanish prime minister had decided to legalise thousands of migrants in Spain in order to expand his electoral base. Musk reposted it, commenting with just one word: ‘Wow.’ Sánchez responded by writing: ‘Mars can wait. Humanity cannot.’