The government and social media will create a working group to curb hate speech.

The Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration has agreed today with the major digital platforms Meta, TikTok, X and Google to create a new permanent monitoring group dedicated to periodically analyzing hate speech on social media . The aim is to try to improve the processes for removing it. "This is an unprecedented collaboration. I want to thank all the platforms involved for their willingness to redouble their efforts in the face of this wave of hate," said Minister Elma Saiz .

The creation of this group, which will begin work at the end of the summer, follows a morning meeting with representatives from the platforms. During its development, the response of social networks and Google itself to hate speech and the moderation of such content was analyzed. Representatives from the technology companies shared their internal policies for detecting and monitoring this type of content.

According to data handled by the Executive, networks such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and X still have a lot of work ahead when it comes to combating hate speech and misinformation. In 2024 alone, the Spanish Observatory on Racism and Xenophobia reported a total of 2,870 pieces of xenophobic and racist hate content that could constitute a crime, an administrative offense, or violate the rules of conduct of digital platforms. Of this reported content, the platforms removed 1,010 pieces of content, representing 35% of the total, 14 points less than in 2023.

As for the first half of 2025, thanks to the FARO monitoring system, which the Ministry began using in March, more than half a million hate speech messages have been detected, and platforms have removed 33% of those reported, a similar percentage to the previous year. Saiz points out that these results are "insufficient" and calls for "redoubling efforts" to ensure that content is "removed more effectively" and "more quickly, because degrading and criminal messages cause more damage the longer they are published."

The creation of this group was announced just two weeks after the events that occurred in the Murcia town of Torre Pacheco. The attack on an elderly man by a group of young North Africans led, among other things, to social media and platforms like Telegram being actively exploited by users to launch attacks against minorities and share misinformation. "The government will not turn a deaf ear because what happens on social media has its translation into reality. We have already seen this in Torre Pacheco," the minister stated directly.