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Spain demands TikTok suspend operations

· Fact-checked before it aired. Unconfirmed claims from this segment are not shown.

On November 10, 2026, Spain's Minister for Youth and Children, Sira Rego, asked TikTok to suspend operations in Spain and formally asked the country's data protection agency to take temporary action until child sexual abuse material is removed. The move follows a 35-day investigation by Spanish nonprofit Maldita.es, which reported 1,183 explicit child sexual abuse videos with about 48 million views, and more than 20,000 suspected paedophile profiles, including around 7,000 Spanish-language accounts. Maldita.es said TikTok removed only 5 of 50 reported explicit videos in a sample, and that 40% of the accounts that posted them were still active 72 hours later. Spain's government also referred the matter to prosecutors and the data protection agency. TikTok restricted two search terms in Spai

The Spanish government argues TikTok's moderation is failing and its algorithm is amplifying abuse. Rego said TikTok offered no commitment to an audit or new verification measures. The pressure is grounded in the EU Digital Services Act, which allows urgent measures against very large online platforms when they may be infringing the law. Maldita.es says the abusive content was easy to find and that TikTok benefits from gifts sent during live broadcasts involving minors.

Spain's youth and children's minister has asked TikTok to suspend operations in Spain and asked the country's data protection agency to temporarily suspend the platform after an investigation found widespread child sexual abuse material.

The Wall Street Journal reports Anthropic's seven co-founders plan to cash out about $250 million each in the company's IPO, leaving each with a stake worth roughly $18 billion.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called the impeachment threats from Republican Congressman Thomas Massie a “farce,” according to Reuters.

Fact-check

VERIFIED TRUE

Spain's youth and children's minister has asked TikTok to suspend operations in Spain and asked the country's data protection agency to temporarily suspend the platform after an investigation found widespread child sexual abuse material.

Spain demands that TikTok suspend operations until child sexual abuse material gone https://t.co/DtCZWpSwCc

Original post · @Reuters

[channelnewsasia.com](https://www.channelnewsasia.com/business/spain-demands-tiktok-suspend-operations-until-child-sexual-abuse-material-gone-6540441) NAMES: Ti

VERIFIED TRUE

The Wall Street Journal reports Anthropic's seven co-founders plan to cash out about $250 million each in the company's IPO, leaving each with a stake worth roughly $18 billion.

Anthropic’s seven founders plan to cash out about $250 million apiece in the IPO—leaving them with stakes worth around $18 billion each. https://t.co/74YOrvP32u

Original post · The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ)

The Wall Street Journal NAMES: Anthropic = the AI company behind Claude.

Sources

What the hosts said

BSpain just told TikTok to suspend operations in the country, and this is not a political fight. It's about child sexual abuse material.
BReuters posted on X that the minister for youth and children, Sira Rego, said, "If it were up to us, it would have been suspended yesterday."
BA Spanish nonprofit called Maldita spent thirty-five days inside the platform. They say they found nearly twelve hundred child sexual abuse videos.
BForty-eight million views. That is an emergency, not a moderation gap.
BThey also found more than twenty thousand suspected pedophile profiles, including about seven thousand Spanish-language accounts.
BThe government has referred the whole thing to prosecutors and asked the data protection agency to step in.
BTikTok says it is cooperating with law enforcement. But the investigators say only five of fifty reported videos were taken down.
BAnd forty percent of the accounts that posted them were still active three days later. That is the failure.
BThat is why Madrid wants the entire app paused until the content is gone.
BI get the outrage. But suspending a whole platform? That's a big hammer.
BWhen moderation has failed this badly, a big hammer is exactly what should be on the table.
BBut now a government gets to decide which apps operate. That should worry anyone who cares about free speech.
BIt's not a permanent ban. The EU's Digital Services Act allows urgent temporary measures.
BThe EU's law also gives regulators broad power over private platforms. I don't like that.
BCome on, Brian. TikTok has had years to clean this up. Spain is not the first country to find it.
BThen hit them with massive fines, order an audit, make them change. But shutting down the app punishes millions of ordinary users.
BThe ordinary users include children being exploited on camera. That has to be the priority.
BOf course it does. But you don't burn down the library because there's a bad book in it.
BThis is not one bad book. It's twenty thousand profiles. That's systemic.
BWhich is exactly why an independent audit and heavy fines make more sense than a state-ordered blackout.
BThe minister says TikTok offered no commitment to an audit. So what's left, another stern letter?
BMy solution is holding the company accountable without giving the state an off switch for apps.
BSo your solution is a strongly worded letter with more teeth.
BMy solution is real regulation, not suspension. I'll grant the line is hard to hold when kids are at risk.
BI'll grant the suspension worry. But I won't pretend TikTok has earned the benefit of the doubt.
BFair. We agree on the problem, just not how far the state should go.
BBack to Washington. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is responding to that impeachment push from his own party.
BReuters reports he called Congressman Thomas Massie's impeachment threats a "farce."
BA farce. That is the Secretary of Defense, not a cable news commentator.
BMassie is the Kentucky Republican pushing to remove him. Hegseth is basically saying the whole thing is a joke.
BThere's something unusual about a Cabinet secretary publicly dismissing a sitting member of his own party like that.
BIt shows how broken the relationship is between the White House and the libertarian wing.
BMy take: if you want to impeach a defense secretary, you'd better have more than a personality fight. Massie hasn't shown that.
BOr Hegseth knows the votes aren't there, so he can afford to be dismissive.
BEither way, Republicans are fighting in the open again while they try to hold a majority.
BAnd then they wonder why the map keeps getting harder.
BNews Tonight is next with the full rundown of the day's headlines.

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