MADRID, March 11 (Reuters) – Spain will launch a tool to measure hate speech on digital platforms as part of a broader strategy to increase oversight of social media companies, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Wednesday.
The country announced a wider plan last month to regulate social media, including a ban on its use for younger teenagers and measures to hold platform executives accountable for illegal or hateful content hosted on their services.
The new tool, called HODIO — an acronym in Spanish for Footprint of Hatred and Polarisation — will allow the government to systematically track the presence, amplification and impact of hate speech online, Sanchez said.
Online hate was causing deep divisions in Spanish society, he said, and it was important to start talking about the “footprint of hate” in the same way society discusses the carbon footprint.
“We want to start talking about the impact of hate. When something is measured, it ceases to be invisible,” he said.
The tool’s results will be made public, so that citizens can see “who is blocking this content, who is looking the other way, and who is profiting from it,” Sanchez said.
(Reporting by Emma Pinedo; Editing by Charlie Devereux and Pooja Desai)
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