Telegram's Durov says Spanish social media plans weaponise safety

Telegram founder Pavel Durov on Wednesday joined Elon Musk in publicly criticising plans by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to ban social media access for under 16s and to prosecute executives for hate speech on their platforms.

Durov said in a message to Telegram users that the proposal to block children would force social media platforms to gather the data of all users and measures to curb hate speech would prompt platforms to strip content to avoid prosecution.

The proposal by Sanchez to criminalise the use of algorithms deemed as amplifying harmful content would allow governments to control what users see, said Durov, who is based in Dubai.

“These aren’t safeguards; they’re steps toward total control. We’ve seen this playbook before – governments weaponizing “safety” to censor critics,” he wrote on Telegram.

Spain’s government defended its plans in a lengthy statement saying Durov’s criticism sent to all Spanish users of Telegram was unprecedented and unwarranted and underlined the urgent need to regulate social media and messaging apps to protect its citizens from “propaganda”.

Sanchez said in Dubai on Tuesday that his plans were in line with a “Coalition of the Digitally Willing” of likeminded European countries wanting to clean up social media.

The politician, one of a dwindling band of leftist leaders in Europe, has been criticising technology platforms since early last year when he proposed ending anonymity on social media and linking users’ data to a common EU identity wallet.

His wider campaign against disinformation began earlier and was instigated by what he described as a right-wing smear campaign against his family over the investigation of his wife Begona Gomez for influence peddling. She denies the charges and the case is ongoing.

Spain joins countries such as Britain, Greece and France in considering tougher stances on social media, after Australia in December became the first nation to prohibit access to such platforms for children younger than 16.

Russian-born Durov was detained in Paris in August 2024 over alleged criminal activities on the messaging app. In March last year he denied any wrongdoing.

His message about the Spanish plans was forwarded from an account in his name to a channel that normally advises Telegram users about security and account issues.

Musk, the owner of X, has also condemned Sanchez’s proposed measures, describing him in an X post on Monday as “a tyrant and a traitor to the people of Spain”.

Representatives of Google, part of Alphabet, TikTok, Snapchat and Meta  did not respond to requests for comment on Spain’s proposed measures.