Spain’s Socialist Government Unveils System to Track and Measure Online ‘Hate Speech’

Opposition leader Santiago Abascal said the system amounts to government monitoring of social media, adding it could be used for censorship.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez listens during the extraordinary plenary session in Madrid, Spain on March 18, 2020. Mariscal - Pool/Getty Images

Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez presented a new system on March 11 designed to analyze how “hate speech” spreads on social media, saying the tool will track the presence, amplification, and impact of such content online.

The new tool, called HODIO, an acronym in Spanish for Footprint of Hatred and Polarisation, will allow the ​government to systematically track the presence, amplification, ​and impact of what it deems hate speech online, Sanchez said.