Spain has unveiled a new digital monitoring system designed to measure the spread of hate speech and polarisation across social media platforms.
The tool, called HODIO, was presented by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez during the first Forum Against Hate held at the Royal Collections Gallery in Madrid.
According to the government, the system aims to track, measure and analyse the presence and evolution of hate speech online.
Sanchez said the goal is to publicly hold social media companies accountable if they fail to act against harmful content shared on their platforms.
‘We need transparency, we need to understand, we need data,’ Sanchez said.
‘It’s going to be a transparent, rigorous tool based in established academic protocols.’
He added: ‘The goal is very clear, to bring the hate out from the shadows, make it visible, demand accountability from those who do not act.’
The initiative forms part of a broader package of measures announced by the government earlier this year aimed at regulating digital platforms and protecting users online.
Among the proposed policies are a ban on social media access for under-16s and the creation of a new criminal offence related to the manipulation of algorithms used by online platforms.
The HODIO system will focus on identifying how hate messages spread and how widely they are amplified on different social networks.
According to the prime minister, the system will create a process of ‘tracking, quantifying and tracing’ hate content, generating evidence that could later support potential sanctions against platforms that fail to control it.
The monitoring work will be carried out by the Spanish Observatory on Racism and Xenophobia (OBERAXE), which will analyse how hate speech circulates and grows on each social media platform.
Sanchez compared the initiative to environmental systems used to measure carbon footprints, arguing that measuring the problem makes it visible.
‘When something is measured, it stops being invisible,’ he said.
The government says the system will combine quantitative data analysis with expert evaluation in order to produce regular reports.
These results will be made public so citizens can see how different platforms respond to hate speech.
‘We will publish the results so everyone knows who is tackling hate, who is looking the other way and who is making money from it,’ Sanchez said.
He also stressed that the digital world cannot remain a lawless environment and that social media companies must be accountable for the content circulating on their platforms.
One of the additional measures under consideration is the creation of a new offence related to ‘algorithmic amplification’, which would hold platforms legally responsible if their algorithms are designed in ways that spread hate messages.
Sanchez concluded by stating that no company, regardless of its size or influence, should be above the law.
‘Nothing and no one, no matter how powerful, is above or outside the law,’ he said.
