A Spanish women’s rights activist has criticized her government’s proposed social media regulations as insufficient, arguing that anonymous accounts must be traceable to end impunity for online harassment. The call comes amid growing European efforts to hold tech giants accountable for digital violence and hate speech.

Carla Galeote, a 25-year-old lawyer and prominent online feminist commentator, has herself suffered targeted abuse, including AI-generated fake nude images. Speaking to Reuters, she said the Spanish government’s plan “doesn’t go far enough” and called for stronger measures to protect all users, not just minors.

Madrid’s draft legislation seeks to ban social media use for children under 16 and make platform executives criminally liable if they fail to remove illegal or hateful content. Similar proposals are under consideration in France, Greece, and Poland, while Australia became the first country to restrict social media access for children under 16 in December.

Galeote stressed that digital violence predates AI, but the advent of deepfakes and other technologies has made it more visible. “Social media isn’t new — and the violence is brutal, systematic, 24/7,” she said. She recalled reporting her own abuse to the police, only to be told it wasn’t a crime. “What hit me hardest wasn’t the deepfake, it was going to the police and being told it wasn’t even a crime,” she said.

While some officials defend age restrictions as protective, Galeote called such measures “paternalistic,” emphasizing that online safety should apply to all users. She also rejected the notion that regulation necessarily threatens free speech. “It’s impossible to think that a man on the street could shout that they’ll rape you and nothing happens, but that’s what we’re seeing online,” she said.

Rather than imposing fines, Galeote suggested more stringent consequences for platforms that repeatedly fail to curb abuse, including barring them from major markets like the European Union. She defended pseudonymous accounts but said the real identity behind every account must be verifiable: “Call yourself ‘PeppaPig88’ if you want — fine. But there has to be a real identity behind that account.”

Spain’s proposed legislation represents a growing European push to shift from fines and takedown notices toward stronger, enforceable accountability measures for tech companies, balancing user protection with freedom of expression in the digital age.