Pedro Sánchez and the digital mudslinging
The announcement by Pedro Sánchez that the Spanish government It will prohibit access to social networks for minors under sixteen years of age. This has produced exactly what the Spanish president wanted: a heated public debate, with opposing opinions, surrounded by a great deal of controversy. After more than seven years of doing it every day, Sánchez has become a consummate master at focusing attention on himself and his government's actions, thus seizing—or at least contesting—the spotlight from his adversaries, who, in fact, prefer to portray themselves as bitter enemies.
Amidst this dusting of controversy, the old reproach has suddenly resurfaced: the left's supposed penchant for prohibitions, in contrast to the equally supposed freedom championed by the extreme and far-right here and everywhere. In reality, rather than the classic clash between dogmatists on the left and liberals on the right, what we have today is a struggle between classical social democracy, fiercely championed and defended by figures like Thomas Piketty and Rob Reiner, and the far-right libertarianism represented by Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. This latter ideology, which masks a profoundly reactionary view of power based on exploiting the inequalities between the powerful and the citizenry, is not the same as the classic confrontation between dogmatists on the left and liberals on the right.
The most valuable gain of social democracy is the safeguarding of citizens' freedoms and rights, a safeguard made possible—not paradoxically—through the application of rules. Letting everyone do as they please is the quickest and most obvious way to ensure the preeminence of the richest, the strongest, and the most unscrupulous. Rules sometimes take the form of regulations, other times codes, complex systems, or repositories of knowledge. Occasionally, rules must consist of prohibitions. Not always, but sometimes it is necessary. In a social democracy, for example, it must be prohibited to harm the environment or public health. Similarly, if we agree that traditional pornography should not be accessible to minors, then social networks that allow children to access disturbing audiovisual content, real or AI-generated, that can erode the mental health of both children and adults—due to depression and other disorders caused by the daily and massive viewing of extreme content—should not be accessible to minors either.
Returning to Sánchez: he announced the social media measure at an international forum, seeking to solidify his position as the world leader who openly confronts MAGA, Trumpism, and the authoritarian wave. The insulting response he suddenly received from Elon Musk doesn't harm him; rather, it confirms the effectiveness of his tactic. He continues to demonstrate a tactical intelligence far superior to that of those who wish for his political demise.
