17 comments

  • Dibby053 3 minutes ago
    They seem to have been granting contracts to manage all kinds of critical data to Huawei's Palantir equivalent lately, so it's probably less about security risks and more about the current source of the bribe money.

    If they cared about security they would not outsource this kind of stuff to foreign companies. Spain is not Somalia, why not let Indra do it?

  • milanito1985 1 hour ago
    Spain is really going in the right direction, I wonder why no one countries inspire from what they are doing
    • fodmap 1 hour ago
      I do agree blocking Palantir is a good move but the Spanish government is doing it for the wrong reason. Spain is storing all sort of data on Chinese servers, including their Intelligence, and Judicial wiretaps.

      https://www.politico.eu/article/spain-huawei-contract-judici...

      • athrowaway3z 26 minutes ago
        That is rather disturbing but this had me lol:

        > Spain is “making a big mistake,” said Bart Groothuis [...] “Spain is now dependent on the country with the largest and most sophisticated offensive espionage program directed against us.”

        I highly doubt he's naive enough to believe the "against us" qualifier exempts the operator of the largest and most sophisticated offensive espionage program ever.

      • croes 48 minutes ago
        If the data is encrypted before the upload I see no problem
        • petcat 18 minutes ago
          Huawei is the complete data custodian. They are the ones doing the encrypting.
      • tonyhart7 45 minutes ago
        lmao, such a clown
      • mdni007 40 minutes ago
        As opposed to what? American servers with Isreali backdoors?
        • petcat 17 minutes ago
          How about Spanish servers?

          I will never understand this helplessness that comes from these European countries. They are choosing to be dependent on foreign powers.

          • gregorygoc 4 minutes ago
            Spain is banana republic, always has been actually
            • saghm 1 minute ago
              I don't have any insight into what to call it right now, but I thought for several decades after WWII it was still fascist? If anything being a banana republic might not be as as bad as what it used to be
    • kazinator 14 minutes ago
      Politicians and governments like to introduce crap like blacklisting when they have a good excuse to (a target the public agrees with) so that later it's easier for them to use against arbitrary targets.
    • qpricjalcbeu 25 minutes ago
    • cryo32 1 hour ago
      Looks like we’re doing this in the UK soon too.

      Edit: not sure what the downvotes are. Burnham literally said he’ll do it today.

      • john_strinlai 33 minutes ago
        indeed, and he has apparently already been walking the walk

        >"Burnham did not grant the US tech company any contracts during his nine years as Greater Manchester mayor, and is minded to take the same approach in Downing Street."

    • sucrosesucrose 1 hour ago
      [flagged]
      • archagon 1 hour ago
        Which aspect is unsustainable?
        • peder 33 minutes ago
          I seem to recall some migration into Spain that eventually turned the peninsula into the Caliphate of Córdoba, which arguably wasn't very sustainable.
          • archagon 25 minutes ago
            Oh? I did not realize there were warlord armies rampaging through the countryside in hope of establishing dynastic Muslim rule. Pat yourself on the head for such an astute historic parallel.
            • peder 12 minutes ago
              Why would they rampage through the countryside when western countries let them in without a fight?

              Immigration on Hacker News is like the dumbest topic here. Nobody considers any downsides of any sort, just lockstep agreement that it is a fundamental good.

              Yet a single change to the behavior of Postgres will be met with wild, exuberant debate.

              • archagon 9 minutes ago
                Ah, so these immigrants are indeed part of some sort of caliphate army — just one that was let in without a fight? Yes, that makes sense.

                > Immigration on Hacker News is like the dumbest topic here.

                Insert "We're All Trying To Find The Guy Who Did This" meme.

                • peder 7 minutes ago
                  Oh no, someone had a different opinion!

                  Pray tell, what is a "bad" level of immigration in your mind? Simple thought exercise, but I bet you won't be able to answer it.

                  • archagon 5 minutes ago
                    I don't know, but I'm not deranged enough to say that Muslim immigrants in my country are part of an invading force. All the ones I know are quite nice, actually.

                    Personally, I care far more about the dehumanization of my fellow human beings than how open or closed the borders are.

                    • peder 1 minute ago
                      but see, that's my point: you don't even have the ability to say what is good or bad migration. Ever. Because to do so would violate some religiously held viewpoint that you have that migration is always some inherent good and to say otherwise is some sort of blasphemy.

                      I'm mocking your religious belief.

      • vrganj 1 hour ago
        I think the immigration is what keeps Spain from turning into another Japan or Germany - a stagnant, overly old place stuck in time.
        • fpoling 34 minutes ago
          And in Spain most immigrants are from Latin America with close enough culture and language to avoid most integration problems.
          • ExpertAdvisor01 7 minutes ago
            I wouldn't say most.

            It's around 55–60% of immigrants who come from Spanish-speaking countries.

            Also, this uses official numbers, which reflect a larger Spanish speaking share than there is in reality (as people from Spanish-speaking countries have more straightforward visa processes).

            So the real percentage is probably much lower (as there are a lot of undocumented migrants. 1.2 million applied for "legalization").

        • indoordin0saur 1 hour ago
          Germany has had an immense amount of immigration over the past couple decades.
          • croes 46 minutes ago
            Immigrants but not immigration because there aren’t enough resources to help all the people to integrate.
            • wickedwiesel 18 minutes ago
              Which is a political choice - not necessarily a resource problem. Germany, if any, would have the resources to help with integration but for decades most people and politicians were living in denial that people from other countries that came to Germany actually wanted to stay and _live_ there or were living in a world were state debt was seen as the devil's spawn.
        • snowpid 52 minutes ago
          Besides the mentioned comments Spanish speaking immigration is much more welcomed by radical right AND Germany had a lot of German speaking immigration from Eastern Europe. There are just no German speaking minorities left in other countries.
        • starik36 55 minutes ago
          Just came back from Japan and I found it vibrant and modern.
          • yitianjian 43 minutes ago
            If you went to Japan in the 90’s, 00’s or 10’s, you’ll find the issue is that Japan still feels mostly the same. It’s a wonderful country, but post-Japan’s asset bubble and crash there’s been noticeably less change.
            • protonbob 18 minutes ago
              Why does it need to change?
          • croes 45 minutes ago
            Did you visit the countryside?

            Japan has an aging problem and a big misogyny problem too.

            • kazinator 11 minutes ago
              Name the country and I will easy find the spots where it is not vibrant and modern, and then say "did you visit those?"

              Say, I heard France has great cuisine, but I had street food in Paris and it was meh.

      • mdni007 42 minutes ago
        Except they don't seem to be an Isreali puppet state
      • CommanderData 1 hour ago
        [dead]
      • ks2048 1 hour ago
        It seems in current discourse, turning a European country into another USA is a compliment.
        • croes 42 minutes ago
          Why do you thinks so?

          A country with narcissistic criminal as leader who damages the US science for decades, kills people by dismantling USAID. The raising costs because of his four-week-war against Iran doesn’t help either but damages the economy worldwide.

          • ks2048 12 minutes ago
            I didn't say I think so - I said in current discourse - e.g. this site and x.com. The narrative is that Europe is stagnant and US has pulled ahead, at least economically.

            I think that can be consistent with Trump destroying the long term future of the country and the planet.

  • _ink_ 2 hours ago
    I really like what Spain is doing recently. If it weren't for climate change, I'd consider moving there.
    • Al-Khwarizmi 1 hour ago
      Much of Spain is indeed getting very unpleasant in the summer with climate change, but in the north there are still regions that are quite fine at the moment. Where I am, we recently beat the all time temperature record with 35 degrees, but that was a single day. Most days these weeks it isn't going over 25, and I don't think we hit 30 in June except for that single day and maybe one other day.

      The problem is that the right is poised to win the next election and will probably undo all the policies you like. They're pretty much against everything that has been done in the last 7 years. I still have some hopes that Sanchez might clinch another term because he's a political survivor, but prospects are not great.

    • Xenoamorphous 2 hours ago
      The current government has little chance to get re-elected, and the next one will revert most of these decisions.
      • ncruces 1 hour ago
        It could be worse can only take a government so far. Eventually, just preaching to the choir catches up with you.
    • littlecranky67 1 hour ago
      Canary Islands are part of Spain and probably unaffected from climate change - we have 19-22°C all year round. If it raises to 25° still pretty livable.
      • b40d-48b2-979e 1 hour ago

            and probably unaffected from climate change
        
        No place is unaffected.
      • hecrogon 1 hour ago
        It isn't that simple, Canary Islands already counts with 2.2 million + tourists people and the fresh water is a highly risk resource even when desalinization plants are widespread, the groundwater aquifers are severely compromised. The mild weather heavily depends on the trade winds. But models predict that due to fact of being so close to Africa heat waves are prone to be more and more frequent compromising the water resources.
      • Daishiman 1 hour ago
        Islands are extremely vulnerable to climate change all over, as they are completely dependent in near-term precipitation for all their water (no rivers, no aquifers).
        • littlecranky67 1 hour ago
          No rivers and no water is reality here for quite a while already. The islands rely a lot on desalination, and there is a big EU-funded project going on to create a desalination plant that not only is used to supply tap water, but the water basin of a new hydroelectric plant [0]. Desalination pretty much solves water issues, IF you have the energy (ideally renewable).

          [0]: https://renewablesnow.com/news/construction-starts-on-200-mw...

          • Daishiman 48 minutes ago
            Desalination solves water issues for tap water. Islands may be short on surface area.

            I would also never use the word "solve", as this is just for human usage. The ecosystems themselves are irreversibly destroyed.

    • CalRobert 1 hour ago
      Galicia is supposed to be nice
    • breppp 1 hour ago
      [flagged]
      • pier25 1 hour ago
        In the CPI Spain is not that far off from countries like France, Italy or the US and better than the global average.

        https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2025

        I'm currently living in Mexico and here corruption is a much more serious issue.

        • breppp 1 hour ago
          I am talking about the current government corruption cases, I assume Mexico is worse, but Spain isn't great for Europe either
          • fcatalan 1 hour ago
            The made up cases are so many that they deflect each other and the few real ones. The real scandal is the state of our judicial power.
            • breppp 1 hour ago
              This is pretty common in any country going through a populist phase, they go against the judicial, as is happening in the US
  • gus_ 55 minutes ago
    Unfortunately this order will probably be revoked in 2027/2028, we'll see.
  • Fairburn 4 minutes ago
    Someday, the US will be just a bubble where no other country gives their data to. We continue this decent into fascism to the point that nobody likes us.. or values us. Is this their idea of Utopia?
  • sequoia 27 minutes ago
    "The decision stems directly from growing official concern over the potential misuse of classified information linked to national security."

    What are the specific concerns?

    • badgersnake 23 minutes ago
      I imagine that’s classified.
  • chinathrow 40 minutes ago
    Look, this is not a bad thing per se, but the US reaction will tell you everything you need to know.
  • NooneAtAll3 37 minutes ago
    why not simply make it illegal? why make it a ban specific to one company, are they trying to make their own copy?
    • dofm 28 minutes ago
      Palantir is profoundly untrusted in Europe in part because of Alex Karp. He is viewed as a dangerous neo-nationalist (not incorrectly).

      Never really sure why Anduril doesn't catch the same grief; they are maybe even creepier. Perhaps Palmer Luckey is just a less visible obvious Bond villain crackpot.

    • RobertoG 28 minutes ago
      They didn't ban any company, they just ordered public services and public companies not to use what has been classified as a security risk.

      Anybody here think that Palantir is not a security risk for Spain?

  • Devasta 57 minutes ago
    Anything short of declaring them a proscribed organization is insufficient.
  • holoduke 34 minutes ago
    I find it unbelievable that the current chief of Nato (Rutte) is basically an extension of Palantir. He is making sure countries are signing contracts with this extreme company that on pair with the Nazi ideology. They would support mass extermination camps. You probably think this is over exaggerated. But no its not. This company is evil.
    • CrzyLngPwd 11 minutes ago
      Pretty sure he would do unspeakable things if it meant getting a pat on the head, and a Good Boy, from the real head of nato.
    • loeber 9 minutes ago
      You're out of your mind -- and politically radicalized -- if you think that Palantir is on part with the Nazis. And this kind of facile comparison is offensively trivializing those who died in the holocaust.
  • emsign 1 hour ago
    Great news for Spain. I hope more European countries wake up to what's going on.
  • CurbStomper 1 hour ago
    [dead]
  • pirataespanyol 1 hour ago
    [dead]
  • redsocksfan45 2 hours ago
    [dead]
  • juliusceasar 1 hour ago
    [flagged]
  • psoeratas 3 hours ago
    [flagged]
    • Hugsbox 3 hours ago
      What on earth are you even talking about
      • psoebasura 3 minutes ago
        are you even spanish? do you know anything about Spain? no? the stfu
      • moron4hire 1 hour ago
        There is a certain brand of conservative Republicans who have learned to weaponize antisemitism against Democrats. The general operating theory is that, since the Holocaust, anyone with even Jewish heritage can do no wrong (though I question the sincerity of the view).

        Palantir's CEO, Alex Karp, is the son of a Jewish man. I specifically say "son of," because I understand Jewish heritage to be matrilineal and I don't see Alex Karp engaging in any specifically Jewish traditions. But he does also seem to be one of the "Weaponize the Holocaust" Republicans. Thus, you get defenders such as this.

        • psoebasura 1 minute ago
          no wonder you have so much time to write for free

          as no one wants to pay to hear you

  • ChrisArchitect 3 hours ago