{"id":758744,"date":"2026-02-12T05:06:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T05:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/758744\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T05:06:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T05:06:12","slug":"for-spains-sanchez-the-fight-against-tech-billionaires-is-personal-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/758744\/","title":{"rendered":"For Spain\u2019s S\u00e1nchez, the fight against tech billionaires is personal \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Platforms like X are <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/elazotedelnom\/status\/2020819495233675759\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">rife<\/a> with posts alleging S\u00e1nchez\u2019s wife, Bego\u00f1a G\u00f3mez, is a transgender woman (a claim that has also been leveled at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/emmanuel-macron-lawyer-brigitte-transgender-debunked-scientific-evidence\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brigitte Macron<\/a>, the French first lady whose husband is similarly pushing for stricter regulation of social media).<\/p>\n<p>Spain&#8217;s prime minister has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elplural.com\/politica\/espana\/sanchez-defiende-mujer-bulo-transexual-mismo-han-hecho-emmanuel-macron_363858102\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">acknowledged<\/a> that \u201cpersonal attacks have crossed many red lines,\u201d and appeared to nearly crack under the strain in 2024, when he revealed he was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/pedro-sanchez-edge-spain-prime-minister-resign\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">thinking of resigning<\/a> as a result of the constant abuse.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShould I continue to lead this government or renounce this highest of honors?\u201d the prime minister wrote at the time. \u201cI urgently need to answer a question that I keep asking myself: Is it worth it for me to remain [in office] in spite of the right and far-right\u2019s mudslinging?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/musk-x-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7827216\"  \/>In response to S\u00e1nchez&#8217;s latest proposals to ban under-16s from social media platforms, Elon Musk called him a \u201ctrue fascist totalitarian.\u201d | Brendan Smialowski\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>His <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/pedro-sanchez-stays-prime-minister-spain\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">decision to stay<\/a> was quickly followed by efforts to address the abuse, including a call for the Spanish parliament to tackle hoaxes and the misuse of artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n<p>After tech billionaires, including Meta\u2019s Mark Zuckerberg, attended Donald Trump\u2019s second inauguration and X\u2019s Musk launched the U.S. administration\u2019s DOGE program in January 2025, S\u00e1nchez began to openly criticize the tech billionaires, whom he said were \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/zxWZB0aq2sI?si=OPVPNsT9kxBHgAaJ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">undermining our democratic institutions<\/a>\u201d in exchange for political power.<\/p>\n<p>In response to his latest proposals to ban under-16s from social media platforms, Musk called the Spaniard a \u201ctrue fascist totalitarian.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Platforms like X are rife with posts alleging S\u00e1nchez\u2019s wife, Bego\u00f1a G\u00f3mez, is a transgender woman (a claim&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":758745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5312],"tags":[1942,21469,13071,295,2000,299,69105,597,50868,5338,182,104],"class_list":["post-758744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-digital-services-act","tag-disinformation","tag-elon-musk","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-illegal-content","tag-mark-zuckerberg","tag-pavel-durov","tag-pedro-sanchez","tag-social-media","tag-spain"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116055925325175132","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=758744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/758745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=758744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=758744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=758744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}