The Spanish Government intends to pass a reform of the Penal Code that would criminalise the organisation of street protests that “seriously disturb the public peace”, by any kind of media including online social networks such as Facebook.

On 11 April 2012, Jorge Fernandez Diaz, the Spanish interior minister, announced in the Congress the government was planning a reform of the Penal Code to criminalise those involved in organising street protests, following the widespread series of demonstrations that have taken place in Spain since May 2011. The law intends to prevent the organisation of any kind of protest organised through the Internet, thus qualifying as criminal any civil demonstration or public gathering.

The Spanish bill is extremely worrying not only by the censure it implies but by its implications as well, the measures being also totally disproportionate with regard to the declared goal in opposition to the necessity to safeguard people’s freedoms.

The bill could actually lead to criminalise the sharing of information online. According to the proposal, retweeting an event considered by the government violent, would be liable to two years imprisonment. As Internet Sans Frontieres points out, the dissemination and sharing of information “should not be criminalised in a disproportionate way, without taking into account the rights and freedoms of individuals, including the right to express freely on the Internet.” The determination of a violent event would implicitly lead to the violation of privacy as, in order to determine that someone is “organizing a violent rally over the Internet”, the Government has to violate the right to privacy of Internet users. Also, such a qualification of an action can lead to an administrative injunction, without any control of an independent judge, to assess the profile of a user creating an event on a social network or calling for a demonstration on his/her website.

Certainly, the reaction of the Spanish Internet users was very strong and Twitter campaigns have already occurred such as #SoyCriminal (I am a Criminal) or #HolaDictatura (Hello Dictatorship). The Spanish government may get exactly the reverse reaction they are searching for – more public demonstrations organised online.

Source: EDRI-gram „Spain: Draft law criminalising online organisation of public protests“ Number 10.8, April 25, 2012