Pedro Sanchez has accused tech elites of undermining democracy
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has called for action against the growing influence of US-based tech billionaires who he described as a tech “caste” of Silicon Valley.
The comments came on the same day that Elon Musk of X, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, Jeff Bezos of Amazon and Google chief Sundar Pichai took front row seats at US President Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony on Monday.
Speaking at the HispanIA 2040 event in Madrid on Monday, Sanchez lambasted Silicon Valley's role in shaping public opinion and monopolizing information. He accused the US “tech caste” of “trying to use its absolute power over social media to control public debate and therefore government action in the whole West.”
Faced with this, Europe must “rebel,” said Sanchez.
“I want to be clear and concise. I will say it in less than 280 characters: democracy is not one euro, one vote. Nor one tweet, one vote. Democracy is one person, one vote. Europe will stand up to this threat. Europe will defend democracy,” he claimed.
Although Sanchez did not mention any specific names, multiple media outlets deduced that his comments were aimed specifically at Elon Musk, the owner of the X social media platform. The world’s richest man has emerged as a close ally of President Donald Trump and poured millions into his election campaign.
Monday’s comments weren't the first time Sanchez had criticized Musk’s influence. Earlier this month, he stated that “the richest man on the planet” was leading an “international reactionary” movement that “stirs up hatred.”
Elon Musk recently drew criticism in Europe for targeting UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, while expressing support for Germany’s far-right AfD party in next month’s election.
Sanchez’s critics have argued, however, that by targeting Trump and his allies, the Spanish PM was trying to cast himself as a global leader in the fight against populism, in order to distract from scandals at home. The Sanchez government has faced multiple corruption allegations and accusations of undermining democratic norms.
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