Dubai  –  Spain will seek to ban social media for under-16s to protect them from harmful content such as pornography and violence, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said on Tuesday, drawing a furious response from X owner Elon Musk. “Platforms will be required to implement effective age verification systems-not just checkboxes, but real barriers that work,” Sánchez told a summit in Dubai. “Today, our children are exposed to a space they were never meant to navigate alone: a space of addiction, abuse, pornography, manipulation, violence. We will no longer accept that.” The Socialist leader also pledged to change Spanish law to make the chief executives of tech platforms “face criminal liability for failing to remove illegal or hateful content”. Musk, in a post on X, called out the premier as “Dirty Sanchez”, who was a “tyrant and traitor to the people of Spain”, adding a poop emoji.

In another post, Musk called Sánchez “the true fascist totalitarian”. The posts were part of a series that also lashed out French authorities that carried out police raids on the social media giant’s Paris offices over alleged political interference and sexual deepfakes. Sánchez had broached a social media ban for under-16s in November but fleshed out his idea on Tuesday in a package of five measures to be approved “starting next week”. However, his coalition government lacks a parliamentary majority and often struggles to pass legislation. Australia established a world first in December when it banned young teenagers from some of the world’s most popular platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. France and Portugal have also sought to follow suit. Spain has joined Denmark, Greece and France in leading a push for similar action across the European Union.