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The Socialist government of Pedro Sánchez has launched HODIO (Footprint of Hatred and Polarization—which in Spanish also sounds like the word for ‘hate’), an artificial-intelligence-based platform designed to monitor content circulating on social media and measure the reach of what authorities describe as “hate speech.”
The initiative, presented in Madrid this Wednesday during the first Forum Against Hate (Foro contra el odio), represents another step in the government’s strategy to increase oversight of public debate on the internet and reinforces a broader trend in recent years toward greater institutional control over the digital space.
The system has been developed by the Spanish Observatory on Racism and Xenophobia (OBERAXE), an agency under the Ministry of Inclusion, and will operate through the large-scale collection of messages published on social media, which will then be analyzed by algorithms capable of classifying content according to “criteria of polarization, discrimination, or political conflict.”
Based on this data, the government will produce periodic reports and public rankings on the behavior of platforms, identifying which ones allow a greater spread of messages considered problematic. In other words, it aims to publicly signal users and conversations that authorities consider undesirable.
The executive argues that the goal is to increase transparency and force technology companies to assume responsibility, but the scope of the system has raised concern among legal experts and digital-rights specialists. They warn that the platform amounts to a large-scale surveillance mechanism allowing political power to constantly monitor the climate of opinion online.
Something similar already happened during the pandemic, when authorities acknowledged that the Civil Guard was monitoring social media to track what citizens were saying about the government at the time.
The official presentation makes clear that HODIO is not limited to detecting crimes but seeks to measure “polarization” and the social impact of certain opinions, a much broader concept that is far more difficult to define legally.
The use of artificial intelligence to classify messages also introduces a clear lack of transparency, since the specific criteria used to evaluate content have not been publicly disclosed. Who watches the watchers? It is the same question as always.
The launch of the platform comes at a moment when the government has intensified its criticism of social networks, accusing them of encouraging political confrontation and spreading extreme messages.
In recent months, the executive has proposed new restrictions on how these platforms operate, defended sanctions for the algorithmic amplification of certain content, and supported measures to limit minors’ access to digital services—all in the name of reducing harmful content, but also tightening control over real-time criticism and information.
This political line coincides with the approach taken by the European Union, which in recent years has adopted rules such as the Digital Services Act, forcing platforms to remove content deemed illegal or harmful and to submit their systems to regulatory oversight.
Another issue raising concern is whether the administration can realistically handle such a vast amount of information without infringing fundamental rights.
Although the government insists that only public content will be analyzed, the permanent monitoring of digital conversations raises serious questions about privacy, proportionality, and the limits of state control.
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