Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sánchez has accused tech billionaires of wanting overthrow democracy.
Social media owners should be held responsible for “poisoning society” and eroding democracy with their algorithms, Mr Sánchez said in one of the most forceful addresses to this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos.
He called on world leaders to take up the fight of returning digital platforms to their original purpose of being a safe place for conversation, rather than being the “tools of our own oppression”.
“The owner of a small restaurant is responsible if their food poisons customers; social media tycoons should be held responsible if their algorithms poison our society,” Mr Sánchez said
“Let’s take back control. Let’s make social media great again,” he said, paraphrasing the campaign slogan of US president Donald Trump.
While social media had brought lots of positives such as connecting people, they also came with huge downsides, “hidden in the bowels of the algorithms like invaders concealed in the belly of the Trojan horse.”
He cited the rise of online bullying and a rise in anxiety.
Mr Sánchez also took a swipe at tech billionaires, saying there has been a concentration of wealth and power in the hands of just a few, “at the cost of our mental health and our democracies”.
The prime minister said he would propose an EU council meeting to end anonymity on social media and make algorithms more transparent.
Earlier UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that the world is facing “a Pandora’s box of troubles” from widening geopolitical divisions, rising inequalities and “out of control technology”.
Mr Guterres told the forum that governments were increasingly ill-equipped to deal with the challenges facing them. “We are living in an increasingly rudderless world,” he said.
Mr Guterres said the world’s addiction to fossil fuels was now a “Frankenstein’s monster sparing nothing and no one”.
“All around us, we see clear signs that the monster has become master,” he said in a speech days after 2024 was revealed to have been the hottest year on record and Donald Trump began his second term as US president by pulling the country out of the Paris climate agreement and pledging to “drill, baby, drill” for more oil and gas. The fossil fuel industry gave $75 million to Mr Trump’s campaign.
“What we are seeing today – sea-level rise, heatwaves, floods, storms, droughts and wildfires – are just a preview of the horror movie to come,” he added.
Mr Guterres did, however, praise Mr Trump’s “robust diplomacy” in helping to bring about then Gaza ceasefire. “I feel that when we had the position of Israel still reluctant to [have] the ceasefire, just two days before it happened, and then all of a sudden, there was an acceptance,” he said.
Additional reporting Reuters
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