55th World Economic Forum in Davos

Pedro Sánchez sets out three measures to regulate social networks within the EU in Davos

President's News - 2025.1.22

Davos (Switzerland)

22/01/2025. Pedro Sánchez attends the 55th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánch... The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, during his speech at the World Economic Forum (Pool Moncloa/Borja Puig de la Bellacasa)

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The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, took part in the 55th edition of the World Economic Forum held in the Swiss city of Davos, where he maintained an intense agenda of public interventions and bilateral meetings. The forum was also attended by the Third Vice-President and Minister for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, Sara Aagesen; the Minister for Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares; the Minister for Economy, Trade and Enterprise, Carlos Cuerpo, and the Minister for Digital Transformation and Public Function, Óscar López.

"The large social media networks are damaging the liberal order and the democratic system," warned President Sánchez during his keynote speech at the forum. He added that in their beginnings these platforms brought people together and strengthened democracies with new ideas and more pluralism, but today they have been shown to have "huge disadvantages hidden in their algorithms".

The president remarked that at the outset these networks "fulfilled their founding promise" and broadened the scope of public debate by allowing citizens to share their views beyond the constraints of governments and traditional media. "Movements like MeToo and Fridays for Future would not have been possible without them," he recalled. However, these platforms have led to a concentration of power and wealth in the hands of a few "at the expense of our social cohesion, our mental health and our democracies".

Disinformation, fake news and algorithms designed to hide certain political views and promote others have turned what was supposed to be a space for constructive debate and the free exchange of ideas into a "rigged battlefield of manipulation, censorship and falsehood".

For this reason, the president announced three measures that he will propose to all European leaders at the next formal Council meeting to be held in Brussels.

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, during his speech at the World Economic Forum | Pool Moncloa/Borja Puig de la Bellacasa

The first concerns ending anonymity on social networks, promoting the principle of pseudo-anonymity as an element of operation, and obligating all these platforms to link each user account to a European digital identity wallet. To this effect, citizens can use pseudonyms if they want to, but in case of a crime, public authorities can link these pseudonyms to real people and hold them accountable.

The second is to "open the black box of algorithms" to check whether they meet the EU's "legal and moral requirements". He explained that to this end the EU's Digital Services Act should be fully implemented, and the capacities and competences of the European Algorithmic Transparency Centre strengthened, so that it can inspect the functioning of social networks without limitations.

The third measure is to ensure that social media CEOs are held personally accountable for non-compliance with laws and regulations on their platforms, as is the case in other sectors. "The social media moguls must respond to these issues if their algorithms are poisoning our society," said Pedro Sánchez.

The president also stressed that all this should be done with optimism, since if these mistakes are corrected, social networks can still be made a space for dialogue, participation and freedom to improve our societies and strengthen our democracies. "I believe that social media is now a common resource for humanity. Like the oceans. And that they must be protected and managed accordingly", the president concluded.

Statements by the president on other panels at the Economic Forum

The President of the Government took part in three other panels, two of them public and one behind closed doors.

The first one in which he intervened was "Health and Prosperity through Prevention", which the president was invited to for his commitment to global health based on equity and for Spain's leadership in the application of advanced technologies. In this regard, the strengthening of the global health architecture is a priority for Spanish Cooperation as a way of guaranteeing equity in health, something that is internationally recognised, as is our leading position in clinical trials in Europe - and third worldwide - in key areas such as oncology and rare diseases.

The second public panel in which he took part was "State of Climate and Nature", which was focused on climate change and financing for sustainable development, where the President of the Government directly appealed to those present to take part and get involved in building consensus on ambitious measures to guarantee the success of the IV International Conference on Financing for Development, which will be held in Seville from 30 June to 3 July 2025.

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, during his speech at a climate colloquium held within the framework of the World Economic Forum | Pool Moncloa/Borja Puig de la Bellacasa

Last, Sánchez spoke at the "Country Strategy Dialogue", which was held behind closed doors, together with a group of senior executives from companies around the world. There, he highlighted Spain's good economic performance in recent years, pointing to this successful model based on sustainable, equitable and inclusive growth, which has achieved robust and balanced economic growth, with moderate inflation, reduced unemployment and improvements in deficit and debt ratios.

Bilateral meetings at business and institutional level

In addition to the events on the official programme, the president had a full agenda of bilateral institutional and business meetings.

At the institutional level, he met with Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the WTO, to discuss the important challenges facing world trade in an increasingly complex geopolitical context. He also met with the President of Panama, José Raúl Mulino, to whom he conveyed our country's commitment to international law and respect for international treaties; and last, with the President of Ukraine, Volodymir Zelenski, to address the progress of Ukraine's EU accession process and to reaffirm that for Spain there can be no agreement on Ukraine without Ukraine, and neither can there be an agreement on European security without Europe.

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, talks with the Director General of the WTO, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala | Pool Moncloa/Borja Puig de la Bellacasa

The president also had the opportunity to meet bilaterally with the heads of CISCO, Mubadala, ArcelorMittal, Vestas and Volkswagen, all of them companies committed to projects of special relevance for Spain, and which are proof of the attractiveness of our country for foreign investment, with its climate of social peace, strong job creation and strong investment in public services with a solid fiscal policy.

The programme was completed with the now traditional informal meeting with representatives of the major Spanish companies present in Davos, as well as the Spanish CEOs of other international companies. Once again, they spoke of the excellent state of the Spanish economy, which is going through one of its best moments in decades. They also spoke of the current complex geopolitical moment and the need to improve the EU's competitiveness and advance the common capital market in this new scenario.

Non official translation