{"id":93985,"date":"2026-02-05T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=93985"},"modified":"2026-02-05T18:10:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T15:10:20","slug":"pavel-durov-criticizes-spains-internet-control-plans-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/pavel-durov-criticizes-spains-internet-control-plans-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Pavel Durov Criticizes Spain&#8217;s Internet Control Plans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, has spoken out against the Spanish government&#8217;s initiative to introduce mandatory age verification on the internet. He believes the new law will lead to state censorship and violate user privacy.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/telegram.org\/js\/telegram-widget.js?22\" data-telegram-post=\"durov\/469\" data-width=\"100%\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>On February 3, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez announced measures to restrict access to social platforms for those under 16.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"es\" dir=\"ltr\">Social media has become a failed state.<\/p>\n<p>If we want to protect our children there is only one thing we can do: take back control.<\/p>\n<p>Las redes sociales se han convertido en un Estado fallido.<\/p>\n<p>Si queremos proteger a nuestros hijos, solo tenemos una opci\u00f3n: recuperar el control. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/1MvCNxiLys\">pic.twitter.com\/1MvCNxiLys<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Pedro S\u00e1nchez (@sanchezcastejon) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sanchezcastejon\/status\/2018649760580718738?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 3, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Speaking at the World Government Summit in Dubai, the politician described the current regulation of social media as a failure. He argued that strict control is necessary to &#8220;protect children.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Durov called these proposals dangerous for internet freedom. In his view, under the guise of safety, the authorities are turning Spain into a surveillance state. De-anonymizing users will facilitate mass monitoring and politically motivated censorship.<\/p>\n<p>The initiative has also been criticized by other public figures. Elon Musk <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/elonmusk\/status\/2018873150973612340\">mocked<\/a> S\u00e1nchez&#8217;s statement, while journalist Taylor Lorenz <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TaylorLorenz\/status\/2019084021842465143\">urged<\/a> the community to fight against such laws. Critics are convinced that the aim of these measures is not to protect minors but to suppress dissent and conceal corruption.<\/p>\n<p>Back in October 2025, Durov <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/pavel-durov-warns-of-the-imminent-demise-of-the-free-internet\">warned<\/a> of the &#8220;imminent demise&#8221; of a free internet. Later, he <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/telegram-to-launch-decentralized-ai-network-on-ton\">announced<\/a> a decentralized network for AI on <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/what-is-ton\">TON<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, has spoken out against the Spanish government&#8217;s initiative to introduce mandatory age verification on the internet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":93986,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"Pavel Durov criticizes Spain's internet control plans.","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[39,1445,1138,1423,741],"class_list":["post-93985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-censorship","tag-internet","tag-opinions","tag-pavel-durov","tag-spain"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"73","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"Pavel Durov criticizes Spain's internet control plans.","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93985"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93987,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93985\/revisions\/93987"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}