Spain to probe Meta for alleged privacy breaches: PM Sanchez

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Wednesday said Spain would investigate Facebook owner Meta for allegedly violating millions of users' privacy, summoning the US tech giant to answer before parliament.

An investigation by Spanish, Belgian and Dutch experts found that Meta, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, used a "hidden mechanism" for almost a year to track the internet activity of Android device users, Sanchez's office said in a statement.

Data was allegedly collected about the web pages users visited on browsers and was then linked to their identity on Facebook and Instagram apps, even when internet surfers were in incognito mode or connected via a VPN.

The practices potentially broke several EU data protection and digital services laws, with Meta already facing lawsuits in Canada, Germany and the United States, the statement added.

Sanchez told a forum in Madrid that Meta executives would be summoned to the Spanish parliament's economic affairs and digital transformation committee over the case.

He said they should "clarify what happened so that they guarantee that the rights and freedoms of citizens were not systematically and massively violated", said Sanchez. "The law is above any algorithm or any big tech platform."

Meta had not responded to an AFP request for comment.

The Socialist leader has been outspoken in favour of regulating and holding social media accountable in debates about disinformation and the influence of the platforms' wealthy owners.

He has urged Europe to fight back against a new tech "caste" seeking to control Western governments through their social media platforms.

In January, he proposed ending anonymity for social media users and forcing tech tycoons to provide accountability if their platforms "poison society".