This week, the Spanish government, headed by socialist president Pedro Sanchez, presented a digital tool to monitor and measure alleged disinformation and hate speech on social media.

The tool has been named HODIO, an acronym for “Huella del Odio y la Polarización” (The Footprint of Hate and Polarization), and is designed to assess the volume and reach of “hateful” content on social media, as well as provide data on which platforms effectively block such content.

HODIO is operated by the Observatorio Español del Racismo y la Xenofobia (OBERAXE), an agency under the Ministry for Inclusion, Social Security, and Migration, which will publish semi-annual reports combining data with expert reviews. The results will be available on the organization’s website to help citizens understand “the level of hate on each social network” and “make decisions on how to use them.”

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“Hate does not arise spontaneously, it is cultivated and promoted,” said Sanchez at the launch event in Madrid.

“If hate is already dangerous, social media has turned it into a weapon for mass polarization.”

Smear Campaign

When Sanchez tested the tool at a summit in Dubai in February, he presented it as part of a broader package of measures aimed at increasing oversight of tech giants and addressing the rise of online harassment. There are also plans to ban social media for people under 16 years old.

Sanchez has himself been subjected to so-called online attacks and condemned them, claiming that they are part of a broader political smear campaign aiming to overthrow his socialist-led minority government.

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