Davos day two: Spain’s PM warns tech billionaires want to overthrow democracy, and proposes social media reforms – as it happened

Jamie Dimon has also argued today that people should ‘get over’ Donald Trump’s tariffs, rather than worrying about them too much.

Dimon argues that tariffs are “an economic tool” or “an economic weapon,” depending on how they’re used.

During his interview with CNBC from Davos, he said:

“I would put in perspective: If it’s a little inflationary, but it’s good for national security, so be it. I mean, get over it.”

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has revealed here in Davos that he has patched up his relationship with tech billionaire Elon Musk.

“Elon and I hugged it out,” Dimon told CNBC in a TV interview, adding:

“He came to one of our conferences, [and] he and I had a nice, long chat. We settled some of our differences.”

Dimon praised Musk’s various companies, including Tesla, space exploration firm SpaceX and Neuralink — a startup seeking to develop brain-computer interface systems.

“The guy is our Einstein,” the JPMorgan chief said.

“I’d like to be helpful to him and his companies as much as we can.”

More here.

Time to wrap up, here’s a quick recap…

Spain’s prime minister has accused the tech billionaire owners of social media sites of trying to overthrow democracy.

Pedro Sánchez told the World Economic Forum that social media sites had fallen far short of their original goal of uniting people and strengthening democracy.

Instead, he said, they oversimplify the debate and are polluted by fake news.

He accused social media owners of wanting political power and undermining political systems, because the super-rich believe they are above the law, adding:

That is why the tech billionaires want to overthrow democracy.

Sánchez is proposing an end to anonymity online, proper control of social media algoriths, and making the platforms’ owners legally responsible for what is published on them.

His comments came just hours after Nick Clegg gave a robust defence of Meta’s decision to downgrade moderation on its platforms.

In other news….

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has revealed the UK government will publish an immigration white paper later this year including a review of visas to entice more high-skilled workers as part of its push to kickstart growth.

Reeves also told an event on the sidelines of the Forum that she was “absolutely” relaxed about wealth creation… but wouldn’t promise tax cuts in future.

Reeves has also denied that the Labour government is working against consumer interests despite urging the supreme court to avoid handing a “windfall” to borrowers harmed in the motor finance commission scandal.

Panama’s president has accused Donald Trump of falsehoods over his claim that the US should take its canal back.

We’ll be back in the morning…. GW

Julia Kollewe

Elsewhere in the world of the super-wealthy, the Duke of Westminster’s property company has sold a £306m slice of its Mayfair estate of offices and shops in London to Norway’s sovereign wealth fund.

Grosvenor Group, owned by Hugh Grosvenor, the 7th Duke of Westminster, which invests in real estate, food and agricultural technology, has sold a 25% stake of its £1.2bn Mayfair portfolio to Norges Bank Investment Management, which manages Norway’s national oil fund.

This means that Norges Bank will receive a quarter of the rents from 175 buildings clustered around Grosvenor Street and Mount Street in Mayfair in central London. Grosvenor will continue to manage the properties, which also include the Connaught luxury hotel and the Scott’s fish restaurant.

Grosvenor will invest the sale proceeds in its London development pipeline, aiming to to increase it to £1.3bn. Projects under way include a revamp of South Molton Street, just off Oxford Street, and the transformation of Grosvenor Square.

James Raynor, Grosvenor’s chief executive, said:

“This partnership brings together two deeply aligned, long-term investors who share huge confidence in the future of the West End and London

“Facilitating inward investment on this scale will enable us to help drive the West End’s competitiveness and appeal as an economic, cultural and retail centre of global significance.”

Artificial intelligence could boost global growth back to levels enjoyed before the current slowdown, IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva has told the World Economic Forum.

IMF managing director Georgieva told an event in Davos that the “good news” is that the Fund’s research shows AI has significant potential to lift global growth.

AI can lift growth by 0.8 percentage points, Georgieva indicates.

And she points out that the common theme across all continents, except the US, is that growth is insufficient to give people what they aspire for.

[reminder: the IMF’s latest forecasts predict global growth of 3.3% in 2025 and 2026, below the historical (2000–19) average of 3.7%.]

But, Georgieva has less good news too – there are wide differences in preparation among countries, and in their exposure to AI.

She’s speaking on a panel called AI: Lifting All Boats, and points out that not everyone can set sail.

My worry is that in developing countries, we still have a very significant part of the economy and people to whom this talk of lifting boats is theoretical.

Keir Starmer should show leadership over the Ukraine war by pushing for $300bn (£243bn) of frozen Russian assets to be used to fund Kyiv’s military, the financier turned activist Bill Browder told us today.

Speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Browder warned that if US military support for Ukraine dried up, Russia would make territorial gains in the near-three-year long conflict, forcing millions of Ukrainians to flee the country.

Browder predicts “a refugee problem like we’ve never seen before”, estimating that 15 million people could leave Ukraine if US military aid ended without a substitute.

Browder’s solution is to take the $300bn of foreign currency, gold and government bonds belonging to the Russian central bank which were frozen after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and spend it on weapons.

Browder told us:

“It shows a profound lack of leadership on our part not to have done this before, but it’s not too late.

“Keir Starmer could be the leader in this whole thing. Emmanuel Macron could be. The Germans can’t put a leader up until after their election.

Pedro Sánchez then said he will propose three measures to all EU leaders at their next council meeting in Brussels.

Spain’s PM proposes:

1) putting an end to anonymity in social media.

Sánchez out that people cannot drive a car without a licence plate, send a package without showing an ID, or buy a hunting weapon without giving their name.

And yet we are allowing people to roam freely on social media without linking their accounts to a real identity.

This, Sánchez says, paves way for misinformation, hate speech, cyber-harrasment, the use of bots, and allows people to act without being held accountable

He suggests that the answer is pseudonimity, and force social media companies to link each account to a “European digital identity wallet”.

That would allow people to use nicknames, which could be linked to real people if a crime took place.

Accountability is an “essential complement” to freedom of speech,

“This is the only way to ensure that minors do not access inappropriate content, that people who commit cimes are banned from social networks or prosecuted, and that the millions of fake accounts that exist and influence the public conversation are removed.

2) Sánchez’s second proposal is to “force open the black box of social media algorithms, once and for all”.

He says the values of the European Union are not for sale, and that safeguards such as content moderation and factchecking are both legal and moral requirements.

Sánchez says Europe must fully enforce its digital service act, to make clear that its provisions are non-negotiable.

He also warns Europe’s competence in reviewing algorithms to be strengthened, and put “our brightest minds to work on this, just as the enemies of democracy are doing”.

3) The third proposal: hold owners personally accountable for non-compliance with laws and norms on their platforms.

These owners are the among the richest and most powerful people in the world, and should be held accountable “if their algorithms poison our society”, just as a small restaurant owner is responsible if their food poisons customers.

He says the biggest fine ever imposed on a tech company by the European Commission is just 0.6% of its annual profits.

Pedro Sánchez, prime minister of Spain, has called for a new clean-up of social media, and accused tech billionaire of wanting to overthrow democracy.

In a special address to the World Economic Forum, Sánchez called on leaders here in Davos to take up the fight of returning digital platforms to their original purpose of being a safe place for conversation, rather than being the “tools of our own oppression”.

Sánchez declares:

“In a nutshell, let’s make social media great again”

In a forceful speech, Sánchez explained that back in the early 200s, social media began to thrive under a promise that they would unite people and strengthen our democracies.

Based on that promise, he says, public institutions, companies and the public all joined social media – which allowed people to interact across physical distances.

But the downsides are now clear, Sánchez says, comparing them to “invaders hidden in the body of a Trojan horse”. He cites the rise of online bullying, and a terrible rise in anxiety of loneliness.

And he takes a firm swing at the world’s most powerful tech billionaires, saying there has been a concentration of wealth and power in the hands of just a few, “at the cost of our mental health and our democracies”.

Sánchez accuses the major social media sites of harming the liberal order and social system in three ways which cannot be ignored.

1) Oversimplying and polarising the public debate. 280 charactors or a 30 second video are not enought to explain anything important, he points out, but are creating a divided society that is easy to manipuate.

2) The rise of fake news, which he says the owners of social media companies have chosen not to stop, because it’s good for business, and helps advance their political agenda.

3) becoming tools to replace votes with likes. We were told that these platforms would help to level the playing field, but they have made it even more unfair, Sánchez says.

Sánchez puts the blame for the deterioration of social media sites on Russia, on “antisystem political forces”, and on the owners of big social media sites themselves, who he calls a small group of technobillionaires who are no longer satisfied with holding economic power.

Now they want political power in a way that undermines our political systems, Sánchez warns, and singles out Peter Thiel, the billionaire former CEO of PayPal.

Peter Thiel… openly admitted in an interview that techno billionaires want to overthrow democracy because “they have stopped believing that freedom and democracy are compatible”.”

And that freedom they have in mind, Sánchez adds, is for those who think that because they are rich they are above the law.

He declares:

That is why the tech billionaires want to overthrow democracy.

Sánchez went on to argue that social media is a common resource for humanity, like the oceans, and they should be managed accordingly.

Panama’s president pushed back against Donald Trump’s claims that he could take control of the country’s famous canal.

Speaking on a panel at the World Economic Forum today, Jose Raul Mulino Quintero says he made Panama’s position clear, in a communique before he travelled to Davos.

Mulino Quintero explained:

I reject everything that was said by Mr Trump, first because it’s false, it’s not true.

“And second because the Panama Canal belongs to Panama. It was not a gift.”

Several treaties have been negotiated to settle the Canal’s ownership over the years, Mulino Quintero said, adding that Panama “keeps going” and is not distracted by the issue.

On Monday, Trump said that the Panama canal, which was built by the US in the early 1900s but ultimately given to Panama in 1977 under a treaty that guaranteed its neutrality, was a “foolish gift that should never have been made”.

“We gave it to Panama and we’re taking it back,” he said.

Reuters reports that Mulino Quintero responded “be serious, be serious” when asked in Davos today whether he was concerned the US would invade.

Nick Clegg defends Meta’s content moderation downgrade

Heather Stewart

Nick Clegg has given a robust defence of Meta’s decision to downgrade moderation on its platforms, here in Davos.

As he prepares to depart the tech giant, after Mark Zuckerberg appointed the more Trump-friendly Joel Kaplan, Clegg denied that Meta was downgrading its commitment to truth.

“I would urge you to look at the substance of what Meta announced. Ignore the noise and the politics and the drama around it,” he said, insisting the new policy was, “circumscribed and tailored”.

Clegg added:

“We still have 40,000 people working on safety and content moderation. We’re still spending $5bn a year this year on integrity on the platform. We still have by far the industry’s most sophisticated community standards.”

Clegg stressed that the new community notes-type system, replacing Meta’s fact-checkers, would initially be rolled out in the US.

Clegg called it, a “crowdsourced or wikipedia-style approach to misinformation,” which he said could be, “more scaleable” than fact-checkers, who had lost the trust of the public. He said Mark Zuckerberg, who has allied himself closely with Trump in recent weeks, simply wanted to “rightsize” Meta’s approach to content moderation.

At a roundtable with journalists in Davos, Clegg was challenged repeatedly on some of the phrases that will now be permitted on Meta’s platforms, including calling groups of people “filth,” and referring to LGBT people as, “mentally ill”.

Clegg continued to defend the approach, saying:

“There are a number of societal, political issues where, regardless of what your own views – and I have very strong views myself – on issues around immigration and gender and so on, where it just seems unfeasible for us for people to be able to say things on the floor of the House of Congress, or in everyday media, that they can’t say on social media. So there have been some very tailored changes.”

He added that speech targeted at people in a way intended to bully or harass them remained unacceptable.

The economic losses caused by natural disaster events around the world hit $368bn last year, a new report from insurance broker AON shows.

The cost was driven by major hurricanes, such as Helene and Milton, which hit North America last year.

Although the bill is slightly lower than the $397bn economic losses incurred in 2023, it is 14% above the 21st-century average – something for global leaders here in Davos to ponder.

For nine years in a row, AON say, economic losses have exceeded $300bn.

Insured losses reached $145bn globally – the sixth costliest year on record – which means $223bn of losses were uninsured.

Greg Case, CEO of Aon, says:

“The devastating events of 2024 underscore the significant economic toll of climate risk.

Evidenced by the data in our report – and the tragic destruction in California at the beginning of 2025 – extreme weather remains a powerful force driving the complexity and volatility that businesses and communities face and emphasizes the urgent need for innovative solutions to address this growing challenge.”

AON warns that weather-related events are becoming more frequent and costly.

Hurricane Helene was the costliest global event in 2024. The hurricane made landfall in the U.S. in September and caused $75 billion of damages and 243 fatalities.

The company says the key to global economic resilience is to have greater insurability of climate risk, which may mean communities doing more to mitigate the impact.

Case says:

Part of the solution requires investments in technology and analytics to model and price the risks and attract deeper capital pools that can see a potential return on investment to take on these risks.

Capital will not go where it is not protected – and the events from 2024 should stimulate innovation across our industry to strengthen the global economy.”

Full story: UK to offer new visas for AI and life science workers, says Reeves

Heather Stewart

The UK government will publish an immigration white paper later this year including proposals to introduce visas aimed at high-skilled workers as part of its push to kickstart growth, Rachel Reeves has announced.

The chancellor told a breakfast event at the World Economic Forum in Davos: “We are going to look again at routes for the highest skilled people, visas particularly in the areas of AI and life sciences.”

She added: “Britain is open for business, we are open for talent, we’ve got some of the best universities, some of the best entrepreneurs in the world, but we also want to bring in global talent.”

Ministers have repeatedly said they want to reduce overall migration, and Keir Starmer accused the Conservative government of conducting an “open borders experiment”. But Labour is keen to show the UK remains open to high-skilled workers.

Asked whether – like Tony Blair’s Labour government – she was relaxed about people becoming wealthy, Reeves said: “Absolutely.”

Phillip Inman

Just before Rachel Reeves began her session in Davos today, the Treasury received some unwelcome news.

UK government borrowing unexpectedly jumped to £17.8bn last month, piling pressure on Rachel Reeves to plan budget cuts before a spending review in the summer.

The figure was about a quarter higher than the City had forecast and was up by £10.1bn more than in the same month a year earlier, making it the highest December borrowing for four years.

Rachel Reeves wraps up her Bloomberg session by resisting any temptation to promise tax cuts.

The chancellor says she would like taxes to be lower on people and businesses

But she insists she is not going to play “fast and loose with the public finances”, as that leads to higher interest rates.

But, she argues, if the government can run the state better, and grow the economy, it won’t need to ratchet up taxes.

Reeves says:

I would like to reduce the burden of taxes, but I’m not going to make promises I can’t keep.

And her final message to delegates here at the World Economic Forum is that her instinct is to do everything she can to make Britain a great place to invest.