Spanish feminist targeted by AI fakes wants stricter online regulations
The Straits Times
MADRID, Feb 27 - A Spanish women's rights activist who suffered online abuse, including AI-generated fake nude images, said the government's pledge to regulate social media does not go far enough, calling for anonymous accounts to be made traceable to end impunity for digital violence. Read more at straitstimes.com.
MADRID, Feb 27 - A Spanish women's rights activist who suffered online abuse, including AI-generated fake nude images, said the government's pledge to regulate social media does not go far enough, calling for anonymous accounts to be made traceable to end impunity for digital violence.
As Europe's push to rein in U.S.-based tech giants is shifting from fines and takedown notices to stiffer measures, Madrid wants to impose a ban on under-16s accessing social media and criminal liability for platform executives who fail to remove illegal or hateful content.
France, Greece and Poland are weighing similar measures after Australia became the first country to block social media for children under 16 in December.
Carla Galeote, a 25-year-old lawyer and prominent online feminist commentator, told Reuters governments were reacting only now because digital violence had become impossible to ignore, although the problem predated AI.
"Social media isn't new - and the violence is brutal, systematic, 24/7," Galeote said. "What hit me hardest wasn't the deepfake, it was going to the police and being told it wasn't even a crime."
She dismissed plans to ban children from social media as "paternalistic", arguing all users, regardless of age, need protection from digital abuse.













