The President of the Government of Spain announces an investigation against META over the possible violation of the privacy of millions of users

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, during his speech at the 'Metafuturo' forum

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, has announced that an investigation will be launched against META for allegedly violating the privacy of millions of users. To this end, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp will have to answer to the Committee on Economy, Trade and Digital Transformation of the Lower House of Parliament.

This initiative stems from an investigation carried out by several international centres in Spain (IMDEA Networks), Belgium (Catholic University of Leuven) and the Netherlands (Radboud University), which revealed that the company had been using a hidden mechanism for almost a year to track the web activity of Android device users. This 'silent spying' involved collecting data about the pages they visited in their web browser, and linking it to their identity on Facebook and Instagram apps, even when using incognito mode or a VPN.

This practice may have violated several European privacy and security regulations: the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the ePrivacy Directive (Directive 2002/58), the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the Digital Services Act (DSA). In addition, the company faces class action lawsuits filed in Germany, the United States and Canada.

The aim of the investigation is to clarify what happened, to get explanations from the company's management and to protect any fundamental rights that may have been violated. "In Spain, the law takes precedence over any algorithm or any large technology platform. And whoever violates our rights will pay the consequences", the president stated in his address at the 4th Metafuture Forum at the Ateneo de Madrid.

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, speaks at the 4th edition of the 'Metafuturo' forum | Pool Moncloa / Fernando Calvo

Measures to Address Four Threats in the Digital Space

The president also announced the launch of a package of measures to address four threats in the digital space in the coming months: disinformation campaigns, child protection, combating hate speech and social polarisation, and defending privacy. This package will implement the commitments the president announced at the last Davos summit, when he warned about the concentration of power and wealth in the hands of tech billionaires, "at the expense of social cohesion, our mental health, and our democracies".

With these actions, the government continues working to defend the digital rights of citizens, especially young people. "Social media has brought very valuable things to our society", the president stated. However, it has also become a failed state in which tech oligarchs prioritise "profit over well-being, clicks over rights, and algorithms over the law". "A failed state that we have to rebuild", he concluded.

Non official translation