The Socialist premier has been an outspoken voice about the sector and his latest intervention comes as a fierce debate surrounding social media and their wealthy owners intensifies.
Concern about conflicts of interest have surged after X owner Elon Musk, the world's richest person, helped propel Donald Trump to a second term in the White House and waded into European politics.
Social media now has "huge downsides, hidden in the bowels of the algorithms like invaders concealed in the belly of a Trojan horse", Sanchez said in English at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Sanchez said social media users must link their accounts to a form of ID to crack down on misinformation, hate speech, harassment and bots that proliferate under the cover of anonymity.
All platforms should link every account to a "European digital identity wallet" to hold potential criminals responsible, he continued.
Regulators should be able to "force open the black box of social media algorithms" and "tycoons should be held responsible if their algorithms poison our society," Sanchez said.
"Let's stop those who want to turn them (digital platforms) into a weapon for dismantling our democracies... let's make social media great again," he concluded, in a play on Trump's campaign slogan "Make America Great Again".
Sanchez has already accused Musk of attacking Europe's democratic institutions and "stirring up hatred".
On Monday he urged Europe to fight back against a new tech "caste" seeking to control Western governments through their social media platforms.
Tech giants skip Brazil disinformation hearing
Brasilia (AFP) Jan 23, 2025 -
Representatives of major tech companies -- including Meta, Google, Facebook and X -- skipped a public hearing focused on disinformation on social media hosted Wednesday by the government of Brazil.
The session organized by Brazil's attorney general came as the government is locked in conflict with Meta over its weakening of controls on disinformation on its Instagram and Facebook platforms.
The snub also followed a decision last year by Brazil's Supreme Court to block Elon Musk's X platform for 40 days for failing to comply with a series of court orders against online disinformation.
Brazil's Attorney General Jorge Messias said the companies "were invited but did not participate," in the hearing.
"That is their choice and we respect it," he said.
The meeting centred on concerns about hate speech and disinformation, with a particular focus on Meta's decision to end its independent fact-checking program in the United States.
A spokesperson for the civil society group Reporters Without Borders charged that Meta was "prioritizing ideological interests over public debate based on facts."
Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg's decision to scrap US fact-checking was widely seen as an attempt to appease President Donald Trump, whose conservative support base has long complained that fact-checking on tech platforms was a way to curtail free speech and censor right-wing content.
X's Musk is a key Trump advisor.
Brazil, which has a population of over 200 million people, is one of several countries deeply concerned over Meta's decision to weaken checks on disinformation.
The International Fact-Checking Network has warned of devastating consequences if Meta broadens its policy shift beyond US borders to the company's programs covering more than 100 countries.
AFP currently works in 26 languages with Facebook's fact-checking program, including in the United States and the European Union.
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