networks

France becomes the first European country to ban networks for children under 15 years of age. September will be the litmus test

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For years, opening an account on a social network has been as simple as writing an email, choosing a password and declaring a date of birth. In France, this routine is scheduled to change on September 1 for those under 15 years of age. The ban has already passed Parliamentbut turning it into something that works will require answering much more difficult questions: how to verify the age of users, what information they will be asked to prove it, and what will happen with services that do not only serve to publish photos or videos. That’s where the real test begins. An overwhelming majority. The decision was supported this Tuesday by the two French chambers: 243 senators voted in favor and only 2 againstwhile the National Assembly approved the text by 279 votes to 81. Emmanuel Macron, one of its main promoters, celebrated that France has become the first European country to approve a ban of this scope. The deployment is divided into two periods: new accounts will be banned from September 1 and the restriction will apply to existing ones from January 2027. Of course, the calendar may still be conditioned by the Constitutional Council. A ban without a closed list. The text does not list the affected platforms one by one, but refers to the European definitions of “online platform” and “online social networking service.” TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat appear as the clearest cases, but the border becomes less evident in YouTube, WhatsApp, Reddit or Roblox, where social functions coexist with other uses. As explained by representative Laure Millerin some cases the control will only reach certain tools. Digital encyclopedias and educational or scientific directories are expressly excluded. Platforms will take over. The text does not provide for fines or other sanctions for minors or their parents. The responsibility will fall on the companies, which must verify the age of their users, prevent new registrations that violate the limit and close the affected accounts when the transitional period ends. The Minister of Digital Affairs, Anne Le Hénanff, maintains that The deadline is realistic because verification tools already exist and others continue to be developed. September will be the litmus test. The date leaves the platforms just a few weeks of summer to convert the legal obligation into controls that work from the beginning of the course. The difficulty lies not only in detecting minors, but also in verifying that the rest of the users exceed the limit without creating a process that is impossible to manage. During the debate, several parliamentarians questioned that a system of this complexity could be operational so quickly and warned of possible ways to avoid it, taking the case of Australia as an example. Privacy is also at stake. Checking whether a person has turned 15 should not necessarily require them to reveal their entire identity. One of the alternatives proposed by the sector consists in transferring the verification to the phone itself, instead of requesting documents separately in each application. The approach seeks to reduce the circulation of personal information between different services, although the sources do not detail how it would work or what data each actor would keep. France must prevent access by minors without turning the solution into a new source of sensitive data. Spain prepares its own ban. Pedro Sánchez announced on February 3, 2026 that his Government would promote the prohibition of access to social networks for those under 16 years of age and would require effective age verification systems. The Executive explained earlier this month that had presented amendments to incorporate the measure into the Organic Law Project for the protection of minors in digital environments. At the time of writing this article, the initiative is still in the Congressional Justice Commission, in the report phase. Approving the text was just the beginning. France has been the first European country to bring such a ban to parliamentary approval, after Australia led the way on a global scale. Spain is in a different phase and its proposal can still change during processing, but the underlying problem is shared: transforming a minimum age into an effective control that is proportionate to privacy. Images | Pixabay | Mohamed Jamil Latrach In Xataka | The EU has hit AliExpress with a record fine. And make it clear that the next one could be even bigger.

The networks are filling up with maps that promise the end of the heat. One thing is what we would like and another, very different, is what we know

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There is always a time in the summer when people start to get tired of the heat. And one notices it because social networks begin to fill with weather maps saying “be careful, here comes the cool weather.” The difference this year is not only that this glut begins in July (we already have two possible thermal reliefs in the running!), but that many of the maps have AI behind them. First, the good news. We are, as it seemsin the middle of the second heat wave of 2026. The combo (a ridge over the peninsula, a DANA to the west and very dry air) is a classic. The result is also: up to 42 degrees in the Guadalquivir valley and peaks close to 44 in the south of Valencia. Tropical nights are for everyone. AEMET dates the end “probably on Wednesday the 8th, without ruling out Thursday the 9th”, with the declines becoming generalized from the southwest. And it warns of something important: there is a “high degree of uncertainty.” Uncertainty, yes; but after five days, less and less. And what about the end of the month? In addition to the nearest ‘relief’, there are other maps floating around. One of them is a pass of the European Center AIFSv2 which suggests that for the second fortnight all of Europe will experience a few days of general cold weather. Obviously, a single exit so far into the future does not say much. However, it is interesting because this model (based on AI) is only a couple of months old and is trying to ‘democratize’ long-term modeling. That doesn’t mean I’ve gotten it yet. The best example happened a couple of days ago. he ECMWF’s own weekly newsletter, July 3gave a warm anomaly in the following three weeks, with a possible third wave in Europe. Two days later, another pass from the same center announced the opposite. And it makes sense, because these are not failures: meteorology is something extremely complex and not all of our calculation capacity is capable of containing it within 15 days. Why should we care about all this? Because summer is looking bad. AEMET and ECMWF give a globally warm july and a summer with the warm tertile almost discounted. It is true that beating 2025 as the hottest summer in the series is unlikely, 20-25%; but it is not necessary to turn our days into a slow agony waiting for autumn. Forecasts taken out of context are going to be the order of the day. So… what can we expect? A respite at the end of the week and little else: although it seems that the omens of persistence of the ridges on the continent are fading, the heat is not going anywhere in the medium term. Image | meteologix In Xataka | While AEMET fears the second great heat wave of the year, meteorologists warn that “we have to prepare for harsher summers”

ban them from social networks. Now it is a mirror for Spain

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After a not so long deliberation, the United Kingdom has just announce which prohibits minors under 16 years of age from accessing social networks. TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat are some of the networks that are banned for minors in a measure to tighten children’s online safety and make young people “happier.” according to Keir Starmer, British Prime Minister. This is a radical change that goes beyond child safety itself: it is a gesture of rejection of the power of large technology companies. And it is also a mirror in which France and Spain they have one eye on. “Designed to bedictative“. Last Monday, Starmer already advanced who would soon announce a ban so that younger people cannot access “harmful” social networks. In March, the Government launched a national consultation on the matter to see if they would join countries like Australia, which on December 10, 2025 became the first country to prohibit access to minors under 16 years of age to networks, which also included YouTube. “It will make our children safer, happier, and have more time and freedom to grow” – Keir Starmer A week after the notice, Starmer has reappeared to announce the measure and put forward a series of arguments that justify it. “Is there a situation in the world outside the networks where you would simply let your child pair up with a stranger, an adult stranger that you know nothing about? No, then we must take action on it,” commented the prime minister, who went on to affirm that the right choice is a complete ban on the networks. Not only networks. Thus, those under 16 will not be able to access the most well-known social networks, but they are not the only measures that Starmer has advanced. Although we will have all the details in a statement in July, the boss warns that there will be limits on the hours of use and another series of restrictions (which, again, we will learn about later). Networks like WhatsApp are left out of the list of prohibitions, where video games are not found either, but they will announce a series of measures and restrictions such as blocking conversations with strangers and live streaming. Regarding artificial intelligence, anyone under 18 years of age will not be able to legally access sexual conversations with chatbots. 90% support. As we say, after the application in Australia, other countries have been moving to see how they can limit the use of social networks among minors, with Great Britain being one of the most active. In March, a consultation began between teachers, parents and young people with a series of measures to adopt to restrict apps that, according to the Government, are designed with addictive characteristics. Reuters states that the survey received More than 116,000 responses from both parents, industry and youth and more than 83% of parents who responded stated that the risks of networking outweighed the benefits. But not only that: 90% supported the minimum age of 16 to access social networks. “This is about fighting for what we believe is right” – Keir Starmer What if Trump gets angry? In his speech, Starmer stated that the technology giants have had the opportunity to take measures to protect young people and help parents, but they have failed and that is why governments must come in to regulate. It is a direct blow to the big American technology companies and, as they point out in The Diarya journalist asked what she thinks about possible anger from Donald Trump, who has already been very vocal when a European country did something against American technology companies. Starmer’s response is that this “is about fighting for what we believe is right. I’m not going to accept that you can’t be in favor of artificial intelligence and technology and say that you want to protect our children.” The mirror of Spain. As we say, there are still details to know, such as seeing those time restrictions for other applications that have not been prohibited for minors and, also, seeing how they manage to apply the measures. But what is clear is that, if the world was already watching closely the measures taken by Australia, they will soon have the British example. Spain, France, Denmark and Poland are in that boat and Greece announced in April that it will prohibit access to networks for minors under 15 years of age starting in January 2027. A few months ago, Pedro Sánchez already detailed a package of measures that were going in this direction, drawing the ire of people like the CEO of Telegram, who broke into the mobile phones of all its users saying that Spain’s was a measure against privacy. Business for VPNs. In the background there is a very interesting conversation: whether prohibitions are useful for anything. It has happened with porn and with Australia and the United Kingdom itself with a previous measure seeing a VPN boom to bypass restrictions. Because it is difficult to put doors into the field and, although it is true that these applications have been designed with algorithms carefully controlled to retain the user, that underlying conversation is about whether what is really useful is awareness and education about the use of networks… and whether a ban will not encourage, precisely, the opposite: a greater desire to enter. But of course, there is also the fact that sexual predators They roam freely through some video gamessexualization on social networks with platforms like X and Grok giving wings to the almost unlimited creation of images and the use of images of young people by these sexual predators, who now they have more tools thanks to AI. In any case, there are many countries looking at this carefully, and if that 90% support that Starmer points out from parents corresponds to reality, it is evident that there is a desire there. Those who are not going to be so happy are the children. Image | Pexels (edited) In Xataka … Read more

The world wants to verify the age of children so that they do not access social networks. Children’s solution: paint a mustache

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The United Kingdom presume to have one of the strictest legislations in the world when it comes to protecting minors from social networks. The curious thing is that young people are managing to demonstrate that age verification technology has a unique Achilles heel: an eyebrow pencil. Look, I have a mustache. The British country has been forcing platforms to implement age verification measures in accordance with its Online Safety Act for months. However, a recent study from the NGO Internet Matters reveals that the limits imposed by these platforms are surprisingly easy to overcome. In fact, one of the methods is especially striking, because some children simply use an eyebrow pencil to paint a mustache and thus look older than they really are. Children 1 – Machines 0. This agency surveyed 1,000 children and parents in the United Kingdom and although it showed positive effects after activating these measures, it also made it clear that many children saw these systems as an easy obstacle to overcome rather than as a way to keep them safe. 46% of minors believe that the measures are easy to overcome. Only 17% believe that they are very difficult to avoid, while 19% say they do not know. Source: Internet Matters. Cheating machines is trivial. 46% of the children surveyed indicated that These age verification systems are easy to overcomeand only 17% found them difficult to avoid. There are several methods to overcome these systems, but most are simple. For example, using video game characters like ‘Death Stranding’ to show them in front of cameras trying to verify their age. Also show IDs of other people when asked, or simply use false birth dates. (At least) One in three skips the controls. But not everyone uses these methods: although the aforementioned 46% say that it is easy to overcome these systems and another 17% say that they are neither easy nor difficult, “only” 32% admit to having used some technique to overcome them. Of course, it is one thing that only 32% admit it and quite another that these figures are representative taking into account that they are confessing that they are doing something that they should not do. Methods vary, but many use fake birth dates or log in with their parents’ or siblings’ accounts. Complicit parents. The effectiveness of the Online Safety Act depends largely on the family environment, with data suggesting that at least a quarter of parents are uncooperative. The study indicates that 26% of parents have allowed their children to ignore or overcome these age verification systems, and in fact 17% admit have actively helped their children to evade these controls while 9% simply turn a blind eye. It’s not that big of a deal. Many parents justify this “help” by indicating that they understand the risks of their children accessing these platforms, but prefer to supervise the use of services such as TikTok or video games themselves. The idea: allow your children to bypass restrictions to play with friends or stream, but theoretically under your supervision. The failure of putting doors to the field. It’s not just that age verification systems are easy to overcome: The thing is that they do not eliminate risks completely either. In the Internet Matters study, almost half of the minors surveyed (49%) indicated that they had recently encountered toxic material on the Internet. This makes it clear that even children who do not try to bypass these controls still encounter inappropriate content. There are those who advocate going further and push for the end of online anonymity. Image | Jeremiah Lawrence In Xataka | The EU has just ready its app to verify age on the internet. And Ursula von der Leyen warns: “There are no more excuses”

why the silent user is the big winner of social networks

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A few years ago social networks were used as authentic repositories of information, with many publications throughout the day and maximum interaction. Nowadays it is not unusual to see Instagram profiles completely empty of posts and reserved only for stories or even on X people who publish absolutely nothing, but have a really old account. And it’s not that they are dead accounts, but that their owners are just “watching”. A paradigm shift. The technology industry has been selling us the need to have a presence on social networks to participate in the collective trend and with the aim of staying behind. But for science, these people who just watch without participating are actually the most intelligent and have received the name ‘lurking’. For a long time, this attitude was attributed to a lack of commitment, but the reality is that lukers We represent the vast majority of users on the Internet, who only prefer silent consumption without entering into controversies or commenting on anything at all. In this way, our opinions remain in our minds and are not materialized by putting an answer on X or a comment on YouTube on a video. Why does it happen? Here a key study from Frontier in Psychology has analyzed the psychological mechanisms behind this technological retreat and points to four critical factors: Seeing the lives of others generates pressure that inhibits the desire we may have to share our own life or our concerns. Concern for privacy, since a publication can easily be misinterpreted without context and expose itself to unnecessary controversy. The pressure to generate social interaction in the comment box of different platforms is something that can deplete our energy reserves. There is an excess of interactive stimuli that causes the brain to not be able to process more. Consumption without exposure. Not all those who remain silent do so for fear of entering into a controversy, but for many, it is a matter of efficiency. Here, according to a job from Computers in Human Behavior, the motivations for consuming content such as watching a tutorial on YouTube or reading a thread on X are totally different from those for participating. Here the user seeks mere usefulness for their daily life, making reading comments help to contextualize a news item without having to enter the mire of discussion. In this way, the user feels that they are up to date with all the news that may surround them, but without having to type a single word. The dark side. The problem is that these attitudes indicate that the level of toxicity on social networks is quite high, which is why this ‘defense mechanism’ is activated in which a user does not leave because they do not want to lose connection with the world, but they ‘turn off’ their microphone. In the end it is a selective withdrawal in which you continue to see what is happening, but the noise is not allowed to directly affect the user. Images | freepik In Xataka | Snapchat has almost 1 billion users and invented the king format of the Internet. He still doesn’t know how to make money with it

We are stuffing ourselves with supplements because of the networks. Science points out that we are almost always wasting money

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A scene that can be quite common (or at least it has happened to me) is opening TikTok and, at some point, between cat videos and recipes that seem very simple, a person appears and explains why. Magnesium will change our lives. Sleeping poorly, having anxiety, muscle pain or even going constipated These are some of the claims that constantly bombard us so that we end up supplementing our diet with some of the products that are available (and that are not cheap). The problem is that it is getting out of hand. A great use. Get out of bed and, before drinking your first coffee, there is already a row of pills that you have to take to start the day: vitamin D, creatinethe ashwagandhamagnesium… A real ‘skincare‘but for the metabolism, which is becoming more and more aggressive. According to 2024 datain the United States 61.72% of adults take some type of dietary supplementation, and the figure has been growing for years. But the worst of all is that, of this high percentage, almost half of the people take it independently, without following the advice of a doctor who has been able to detect the deficiency of a specific vitamin. The problem of networks. A systematic review of 82 studies published in Healthcare in 2025 analyzed the impact of social networks in health behaviors between the years 2010 and 2025. Here he was able to identify health misinformation as one of the five categories that dominated the digital content ecosystem, since these platforms function as tools that dictate what to do to be healthy, even if there is no evidence behind it. What encourages all this is nothing more than a business model that is seeing as its income they don’t stop increasing. And logically here it is not interesting to point out that the vast majority of people can receive these ‘miraculous’ minerals thanks to a varied diet. And everything that is taken in excess can end up being excreted very well. What does science say? In 2022, a study focused on vitamin supplements and minerals to prevent the appearance of cardiovascular diseases or even cancer, the truth is that it was very revealing. The conclusion here was that for beta-carotene, vitamin E supplements or multivitamins there was not enough evidence to say that they were positive for health. But they weren’t very harmful either. If we go further, a published meta-analysis in it Journal of the American College of Cardiology In 2022, it reviewed 884 randomized clinical trials with 883,627 participants on 27 types of micronutrients. The picture is nuanced but clear in general terms: vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin E and selenium showed no effect on cardiovascular disease. Beta-carotene, again, increased overall mortality, cardiovascular mortality, and stroke risk. But there are exceptions with omega-3 that did reduce the risk of heart attack and cardiovascular mortality. Magnesium. Without a doubt, the revolution of the moment, since it seems to be used for absolutely everything. In 2020 it already appeared a review on magnesium oral to see if it actually reduced muscle cramps, and the truth is that the conclusion was that it was unlikely to provide clinically significant relief to older adults with night cramps. This does not mean that magnesium is useless in all contexts. It means that if you are a healthy adult who takes magnesium because “a TikTok influencer recommended it to you for cramps” you are wasting your money. But if it is taken because an analysis has confirmed that magnesium levels are below normal, it can be very useful. Vitamin D. A few years ago this was the fashionable supplement for everyone, since it was sold that there was a general deficit among the population. In this case, the experts pointed out that vitamin D should not be supplemented on a general basis in healthy adults under 75 years of age to reduce the risk of disease. There is evidence in favor of supplementation in specific groups such as children and adolescents to prevent diseases such as rickets, people over 75 years of age to reduce mortality, and pregnant women to reduce the risk of preeclampsia and premature birth. In this way, supplementation is useful, but always with medical advice behind it that sees it justified to send a vitamin supplement. When to take them? The honest answer is: in specific and well-defined contexts, with clear clinical indication and as preventive life insurance to avoid all diseases. In some cases it is clear that it must be done, such as folic acid in pregnancies, vitamin B12 in vegan diets or vitamin D in groups with documented deficiencies. But what doesn’t make sense is taking a daily cocktail of eight supplements because we have been sold that it is necessary for our body to ‘start’. But it also has the logic of why we take it, since we have a constant feeling that we need to be more rested, focused and healthier. Here supplements offer us this very easy solution: with a pill. The problem is that our body works with constant balances and no matter how much we throw at it, it will not respond as we can expect. Images | Jellybee MIND FAVOR In Xataka | Magnesium has become the star supplement for sleep. Science is clear about who it really works with (and who it doesn’t)

How to link Apple Music or Spotify to TikTok to save the music you discover in the social network’s videos there

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Let’s tell you how to link Apple Music or Spotify to TikTokand thus be able to save the music you find in the videos in your music library. When you do this, the service you choose will become the one TikTok uses by default. The operation is simple. Once you have linked them, when you are watching TikTok and a video with a song appears, an indicator will appear that tells you what the topic is. Then, by clicking on the name you can open it directly in your music streaming application. Link Apple Music or Spotify to TikTok The first thing you have to do is enter TikTok and click on the options button to open the side tab. When you do it, click on the option Settings and privacy to enter the social network settings. Once you are in the TikTok settings, go to the section Content and screen. in here, click on the section Music that will appear to you. Within the Music section, click on the option Link within the option of Add to music app. You will go to a screen where you will be able choose the default music app to add songs from TikTok. Here, you can click on one of them, the one you use. When you choose one of the options, you will go to the application or website of this music service, and you will be able to accept that you connect to TikTok and both services are linked. TikTok will be able to see data from your account and perform actions for you, such as adding songs. Add TikTok music to Spotify Once you have linked a streaming service, simply browse as normal. When there is a song in a TikTok video, you will see that there is an indicator of the topic it containsand you can click on it. You can also click on the round icon at the bottom right. When you click on the song nameyou will go to a screen where you can have your information, the publications that use it, and options to use it yourself or save it to favorites. Here, you will also have a button to add it to Spotify or Apple Musicdepending on which one you have chosen. This will add the song to your playlist of songs you like on Apple Music or Spotify, the one created when you “Like” any of the songs. In Xataka Basics | Alternatives to TikTok: the main social video networks to go to if you are thinking of changing

NATO classified networks

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The one that is involved in the United States with AI and the Government is one of father and dear sir. In just a few days, Anthropic’s AI has ceased to be the best friend of the Pentagona integrated into your systemsfor become an “AI Woke”“The Trump Administration is thinking put it on a blacklist, but another company has taken its place: OpenAI. And it is not enough for OpenAI to have ChatGPT within the systems of the United States Department of Defense. Now he wants to be in NATO’s classified networks. Action. We have already told the story. When the Department of Defense was looking for an AI to work closely with Palantir systems, Anthropic offered its Claude for the symbolic price of one dollar. That led to million-dollar agreements, but to something more important: they were becoming a vital company for the security of the United States. However, Claude has been programmed with red lines that the United States wanted to skip. Trump gave Anthropic an ultimatum: either give them unrestricted AI… or they had better prepare for the consequences. The company did not give in and what had to happen happened. The Government is working to remove all traces of Claude from its systems. And who was there first to pick up the baton? Sam Altman. With restrictions similar to those of Claude, but without having maintained a fight with Trump, OpenAI has won the new contract with the Department of Defense. Reaction. It’s funny because hours before he showed his support for Anthropic, but business is business and, as my colleague Javier Pastor says, Altman has been saying one thing and doing another for years. Users have responded with dozens of messages on Reddit and other social networks calling for a boycott, which translated on Saturday into 295% more uninstalls of the ChatGPT app in the United States… and a flood of users in Claude. It is always curious to see how humans react and how the Pentagon, which has tried to turn Anthropic into the bad guy, has now managed to make it seen as the defender of ethics. Go for NATO. There are already reports that Pentagon systems are beginning to implement OpenAI solutions. It makes sense if we take into account the importance that AI is having in modern operations, such as capture of Nicolás Maduro or the bombing of Iran last Saturday. But Altman has other ambitions. How do they count in The Informationthe CEO of the AI ​​company has commented in an employee meeting in which he has had to defend the position of being so linked to the Government that he is considering a contract for OpenAI to also integrate into NATO classified networks. An OpenAI spokesperson then clarified that Altman was wrong and did not mean “classified networks,” but rather “unclassified networks.” He has not given more details, but this Thursday he will give a conference and it will surely be one of the points of the day. At least one of the questions that attendees will ask. Danger. At Xataka we do not usually cover rumors and leaks of this style, no matter how good the media like the ones that have let the hare loose – The Information and Wall Street Jorunal-, but in this case we are talking about something tremendously important. It’s about how private companies are creating tools that we see are already being used for mass spying and can communicate with other software for military actions. It’s not science fiction. In fact, one of the clashes between Trump, the Secretary of Defense and Dario Amodei -CEO of Anthropic- has to do with the desire of the former to use AI to unleash to autonomous weapons systems. And even more dangerous than a world in which Entrepreneurs have the reins of something so powerful: United States is proving not to be a reliable allyand for an American company with deep ties to that country’s government to join NATO is giving too much power. In Xataka | The German chancellor did not come out to defend Spain in the White House for one reason: 127 billion dollars in weapons

Catalonia wanted to create the mother of networks for its public headquarters with Huawei equipment. He thought better of it

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The Catalan Court of Public Sector Contracts has partially upheld the appeal presented by Telefónica and Cellnex against the award of the XCAT network contract to sirt and Huawei. The project to interconnect the strategic infrastructures of the Catalan territory will not be able to rely on hardware from China. Why? Catalonia has a fiber optic backbone network, a backbone that supports the Catalan administration. Hospitals, educational centers, public data centers… An infrastructure that has been around for years seeking independence with Spain and that, through the XCAT project, it was preparing its biggest technological leap in decades thanks to the local company Sirt Connecta and Huawei’s network technologies. The offer. Providing it with a budget of 127 million, the Generalitat was finalizing a plan to connect more than 5,400 institutional headquarters. All with its own infrastructure so as not to depend on national giants such as Telefónica, Vodafone or MásOrange. Sirt’s offer with Huawei was the best valued by the CTTIthe computer lung that supports digital services in Catalonia, but Telefónica and Cellnex filed an appeal before the Catalan Court. not so fast. Despite offering a cheaper proposal, Telefónica-Cellnex saw the balance tip towards the Sirt-Huawei proposal. They thus presented an appeal in which they challenged the award of the contract, criticized the technical assessment and indicated their doubts about the technical solvency and real capacity of Sirt to execute said contract. The Catalan Court of Public Sector Contracts has partially upheld the appeal presented by Telefónica and Cellnex, thus suspending the award. There is more. The European Commission’s proposal for a new cybersecurity law, presented on January 20, makes the awarding of the contract even more difficult. Europe wants to expressly prohibit (although the law will not come into force for at least a year) the use of Chinese technology in fixed network infrastructure. In other words, Catalonia cannot use Huawei equipment. If the court’s decision is appealed and the Sirt-Huawei solution is implemented, in just a year and a half all Huawei equipment should be replaced with others of Western origin. The silent dismantling. In recent years, the three large Spanish operators have expelled Huawei from their network cores. Telefónica now works with Nokia and Ericsson Orange with Ericsson Vodafone with Nokia The next step is what the Sirt-Telefónica conflict leaves us with: small local operators will also have to banish Chinese equipment from their hardware core to comply with upcoming European regulations. In Xataka | Huawei MatePad 11.5 S 2026, analysis: the secret of its success is visible and it is called PaperMatte

2,300 years ago Plato already knew what to do with social networks

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“This invention will produce forgetfulness in those who learn it, because they will not exercise their memory: they will trust in the external, not in themselves.” These words are not from a neuroscientist talking about artificial intelligence, nor from a politician regulating social networks. They are from Thamus, king of Egypt, who 2,300 years ago, in Plato’s ‘Phaedrus’, argued that any technology that helps remember ends up weakening. He was talking, of course, about writing. But, curiously, the arguments are so current and relevant that they could have been stated today: banning social mediaFor example. And this is the interesting thing. What was Plato’s argument? The quote, as I say, is from the end of the Phaedrus. There appears the call ‘myth of Theuth and Thamus‘: the god Theuth presents writing as a fantastic technology that would improve memory and Thamus, in contrast, responds that what will improve is forgetting. Although it is usually brought up in the context of classical disputes about whether writing is good or bad, the truth is that the good Plato’s argument is a little more subtle: what he is interested in confronting is rather the difference between internalized and practical knowledge, on the one hand; and the knowledge that, even though it is easily available (thanks to writing), has not left a mark on the subject. That is, Plato does not contest writing. He was, rather, describing a pattern: each cognitive technology reconfigures the skills we practice and those we don’t (and therefore let atrophy). ‘Cognitive offloading’. That is the ‘word’ that, from certain areas of cognitive science, is used to download mental work. They can be using notes, to-do lists, calendars, GPSs or search engines… it doesn’t matter, the phenomenon is very similar to what Plato commented on. The available evidence tells us that, in effect, there is a trade-off: Using these systems improves immediate performance (as Theuth argued), but can reduce deep learning (as de Thamus argued). And it makes sense. When we know that something will be accessible, the tendency is memorize its content less and dedicate those resources to memorizing where to find it. In other words, it changes what we do with those resources we have to try to make their use as efficient as possible. In fact, in the same way we have to recognize that this has problems (especially with content that is fundamentally important), but it also has benefits. This ‘resource release’ allows us, for example, learn new things. PlatoGPT. The issue is always very similar: new technologies trigger moral panic in society and then, with hindsight, we see if they were right or wrong. That is to say, we have been in a very long war between early-adopters and late-adopters for 2,300 years. Now it’s up to artificial intelligence and Plato’s reflections are good. Above all, because they help us see AI as something that goes beyond “a tool”: it is a complete system of incentives that pushes us to improve certain skills and atrophy others. The key is whether those skills that we atrophy are necessary for something else. “Put doors on the field.” A few years ago, the philosopher Antonio Diéguez visited us and explained that the idea that technologists repeat so much that “you can’t put doors on the field” was somewhat problematic. Of course you can. It has a cost, it is true; But there is also a risk of being uncritical with all the technologies that knock on our door. We have learned it the hard way in recent years. We live in strange times when nobody knows anything about the social impact of new technologies. But what is clear is that this should not confuse us and make us believe that we cannot know anything about it. Yes we can, yes we can. It’s more. As Plato said, it is our obligation to know. Image | Raphael / Robin Worral In Xataka | Why being a teenager has always been shit and in the age of social media even more

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