Pedro Sanchez He let others present one of his flagship projects to Parliament. The Minister of the Presidency, Felix Bolanosand the head of Culture, Ernest Urtasundetailed last week the broad outlines of the so-called Democracy Action Plan. The president has been insisting on it during his five-day reflection period, but he has not yet publicly defended how he intends to implement it.
This Tuesday he will have his first opportunity to do so in front of the international community. Sánchez has organized with the Brazilian president, Lula da Silvaa forum titled: “For the defense of democracy, against extremism”. This is a series of debates organized in parallel with the United Nations General Assembly, which is taking place all this week in New York.
The event had been in the works for weeks, but was finalized at the last minute – Moncloa announced it last Saturday. In fact, it doesn’t even appear on the list of the many additional events taking place during the UN General Assembly.
This will be a round table during which democratic quality and the “disinformationTHE hate speech and the violent extremism“, according to Spain and Brazil, co-organizers of the meeting.
The presence of around twenty international leaders is expected, including the French president, Emmanuel Macron; the British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer; the Chilean president, Gabriel Boric; or the President of the European Council, Charles-Michel.
With this act, Sánchez seeks in Lula an ally for his cause against what he has internally dubbed “the mud machine.” Now I’m going to try extrapolate to the rest of the countriesmoving his speech to the global forum with the largest presence of world leaders throughout the year.
Sánchez’s plan against disinformation will not only be heard at this event, but will also be one of the axes of discourse of the president of the government before the General Assembly of the United Nations, according to sources from Moncloa.
The government will try to give greater scope to the so-called democratic regeneration plan – which lacks much substance – by presenting it as one of the major global challenges for developed democracies.
X’s veto
His fellow traveler in this endeavor, Lula da Silva, is not only a traditional partner because of his status as a progressive world leader. The Brazilian president is also waging his own crusade on the same issue, so the collaboration seems almost natural.
On August 30, a judge of Brazil’s Supreme Court ordered immediate closure from the social network Elon Musk to comply with legal requirements required in that country.
The American tycoon refused to block multiple users’ profiles who have dedicated themselves to spreading hoaxes – always coming from the extreme right – and, in the midst of a struggle with the authorities, have also refused to appoint a legal representative in Brazil.
Since then, X’s nearly 22 million users in the Latin American country have maintained the app, but have been unable to download new content. Subterfuges have been used, such as using a VPN, and the company has agreed to pay fines already meet the legal requirements, but the conflict has not yet been resolved.
The decision was controversial and widened the ideological divide between Lula’s supporters and his detractors.
Bolsonaro’s influence
The battle between Musk and Lula has been going on since October 2022, when the businessman bought Twitter and the president won the last ultra elections. Jair Bolsonaro.
The latter’s supporters began spreading on social media that the far-right candidate had been stole the electionswithout providing any evidence, and the tension culminated in an attempted assault on the institutions on the very day of Lula’s inauguration.
The events followed exactly the same script he wrote Donald Trumpwhose Twitter account was closed before Musk reinstated it, and for whom the owner of X has always shown admiration, as for Bolsonaro.
In this way, Lula took disinformation on the networks very seriously as a problem that directly threatens democracy. This is why Sánchez seeks in him an authoritarian voice that legitimizes a very controversial project in Spain.
Could this happen in Spain?
The project presented to the Council of Ministers by Ernest Urtasun mentions social networks as one of the main channels through which spreads disinformation and speaks generically about the “responsibility of online platforms” and the demand for greater “self-regulation”.
The government also has them in its sights, but in no case has it speculated about the possibility of blocking a social network as happened in Brazil. So, would something like this be possible in our country?
Experts have many doubts, because there have already been precedents like that of Judge Pedrazwhich attempted to shut down Telegram and had to remove it shortly after, believing it would cause “excessive and disproportionate” harm to its users.
The lawyer specializing in digital law Borja Adsuara believes that “it is technically possible for a judge at national level to make such a decision, but it would have little impact if there was no prior European Commission resolution“.
Adsuara refers to the Digital Services Regulation (DSA), which regulates the operation of digital platforms and has among its tasks to “prevent disinformation”.
“To achieve closure, the European Commission would have to decide that a platform violates the DSAbecause it is obvious that to operate in a country, you have to respect its regulations,” adds the digital law expert.
Musk himself already threatened a year ago to stop providing services in Europe due to demands from the European Commission that he report on content moderation. Something he has achieved.
The same thing that happened in 2022 with the owner of Meta, Mark Zuckerbergwhich launched the same challenge after the EU blocked it from sending its European customers’ data to the United States for processing.
That is to say, the conflictual relationship that some European governments have with the owners of the main social networks and their bravado is resolved. without major effects for now. A harbinger of what could happen with Sánchez’s plan, which now reaches the UN.
