Elon Musk attacks Spain's PM, calling Pedro Sánchez a 'tyrant' and 'traitor'

Elon Musk has attacked Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, calling him a "tyrant," "traitor," and "fascist totalitarian."

On Tuesday, Sánchez announced that Spain will prohibit the use of social media for under-16s. 

The legislation would have direct implications for tech billionaire Elon Musk, both in his role as owner of X and as a central figure in the ongoing debate over misinformation. 

It comes amid the scandal involving his AI chatbot Grok, which has been linked to the generation of non-consensual sexual images, including of minors.

Following Sánchez's proposal, Musk posted on the platform, referring to the prime minister as "a dirty tyrant and traitor to the people of Spain." He later made another post calling Sánchez "the true fascist totalitarian."

Under the Spanish proposal, social media platforms would be required to introduce "effective age-verification systems" to prevent minors from accessing their services.

Sánchez said the initiative is intended to create a safe, democratic and respectful social media environment that upholds fundamental rights." Additionally, he referred to social media as a "failed state" and accused Musk of using his account on X to "amplify misinformation."

The initiative also includes the criminalization of algorithm manipulation and the amplification of illegal content. 

"This is something created, promoted, and disseminated by certain actors whom we will investigate, as well as the platforms whose algorithms amplify disinformation for profit. Hiding behind code and claiming technology is neutral is over," he said.

"We will change the law in Spain to hold platform executives legally accountable for the many infringements taking place on their sites. This means that CEOs of these tech platforms will face criminal liability for failing to remove illegal or hateful content." Sánchez added.