Catalan President Salvador Illa has instructed the government’s legal services to examine every possible course of action against digital platforms that disseminated calls linked to the violent Blocus protests in Barcelona. He made the announcement in an interview with SER radio.
The Catalan government is studying how it could hold the companies and platform executives legally responsible for their relevance to the riots that took place two weekends ago. Illa argued that digital platforms cannot become places where people can openly call for criminal acts with impunity.
According to the president, the companies’ first responsibility is to prevent such calls from spreading and, secondly, to identify those who promoted them. He said platforms cannot be used irresponsibly to mobilise citizens for criminal acts and insisted that they should explain who was behind the attempts to organise them.
Asked whether he believed there was foreign influence behind the events, Illa said he could neither confirm nor rule it out. He referred to the existence of interference in electoral processes but acknowledged that he had no information proving it in this case.
The Blocus phenomenon resulted in more than 130 arrests after serious disturbances in Barcelona on October 24. Police deployed an operation on October 31 to prevent further unrest, but no new incidents occurred. There are currently no further demonstrations known to be planned.
Sources: La Vanguardia.