alt.hn

7/2/2026 at 3:02:26 PM

Spain Orders Blacklist of Palantir from Public and Private Companies

 https://clashreport.com/world/articles/spain-orders-blacklist-of-us-tech-giant-palantir-from-public-and-private-companies-fsnc2z17gjv

by mgh2

7/2/2026 at 6:12:38 PM

Spain is really going in the right direction, I wonder why no one countries inspire from what they are doing

by milanito1985

7/2/2026 at 6:32:03 PM

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...

by fodmap

7/2/2026 at 7:06:30 PM

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.

by athrowaway3z

7/2/2026 at 8:18:13 PM

Can’t form a COMINTERN if the US is watching.

by cmxch

7/2/2026 at 6:44:51 PM

If the data is encrypted before the upload I see no problem

by croes

7/2/2026 at 7:14:53 PM

Huawei is the complete data custodian. They are the ones doing the encrypting.

by petcat

7/2/2026 at 6:52:58 PM

As opposed to what? American servers with Isreali backdoors?

by mdni007

7/2/2026 at 7:15:56 PM

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.

by petcat

7/2/2026 at 7:58:59 PM

It's expensive to home-grow your own solutions and if you try transitioning too many services at once the cost will be outrageous and you'll probably open other security holes. I am glad Spain is taking this step and I hope they continue this trend - but outright refusing to use any software built abroad requires a massive investment in domestic tech. That investment would likely pay economic dividends but it is a cost that needs to be measured against other investments Spain needs to make and in Spain's case resilience against global warming is especially important.

by munk-a

7/2/2026 at 7:28:13 PM

[flagged]

by gregorygoc

7/2/2026 at 7:40:12 PM

> In political science, the term banana republic describes a politically and economically unstable country with an economy dependent upon the export of natural resources.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_republic

What natural resource export is Spain’s economy dependent upon?

by t-writescode

7/2/2026 at 7:31:45 PM

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

by saghm

7/2/2026 at 7:37:09 PM

i knew it was a little while after WWII (college history was long, long ago!) but didn't realize it was ... 1975-1977!!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_transition_to_democrac...

by natebc

7/2/2026 at 8:04:33 PM

I did a whole Wikipedia deep dive on this several months ago. I vaguely remembered hearing how long it took for it to switch back, but the history around it is kind of fascinating; the son of the previous king was groomed to be the successor of Francisco Franco, and I guess he did a good enough job convincing him that he was ideologically in agreement so that the power was passed to him, which he then used to reinstate a republican form of government.

by saghm

7/2/2026 at 6:47:39 PM

[flagged]

by tonyhart7

7/2/2026 at 8:01:03 PM

> I do agree blocking Palantir is a good move

Why? I'm not an expert and have only googled a bit, but I can't figure out what the specific objection to Palantir is.

by sequoia

7/2/2026 at 8:11:23 PM

I think in general people are a bit distrusting of a tech firm headed by billionaires with deep political ties that sells AI driven surveillance state technology to governments

by gazebo2

7/2/2026 at 8:17:22 PM

> I can't figure out what the specific objection to Palantir is.

You have to be trolling, a single online search tells you how the company CEO is the textbook definition of technofascism. Take a look at his manifesto if you don’t know

by dgellow

7/2/2026 at 7:55:41 PM

I know I’m a conspiracy theorist but I’m looking out for random scandals, random high profile deaths, random infrastructure issues and random large scale accidents.

by serial_dev

7/2/2026 at 6:18:51 PM

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.

by cryo32

7/2/2026 at 6:59:16 PM

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."

by john_strinlai

7/2/2026 at 7:57:02 PM

But how many did he deny?

by NopIdoN

7/2/2026 at 6:15:03 PM

[flagged]

by sucrosesucrose

7/2/2026 at 6:26:08 PM

Which aspect is unsustainable?

by archagon

7/2/2026 at 7:53:51 PM

The aspect where they do not integrate and stay in their ethnic groups, where they bring their religion, where they do not adopt local tradition and customs, when they refuse to learn the language properly, where they refuse to work legally but still enjoy the fruits of public services

by sucrosesucrose

7/2/2026 at 6:59:45 PM

[flagged]

by peder

7/2/2026 at 7:07:17 PM

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.

by archagon

7/2/2026 at 7:20:39 PM

[flagged]

by peder

7/2/2026 at 7:43:38 PM

> Immigration on Hacker News is like the dumbest topic here

"Dumbest" wouldn't be the word I'd use here, considering the views on immigration are sharply divided by education level. I reckon HN has an overrepresentation of people with (at least) a college degree, relative to the general population.

by overfeed

7/2/2026 at 7:23:26 PM

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.

by archagon

7/2/2026 at 7:25:16 PM

[flagged]

by peder

7/2/2026 at 7:27:19 PM

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.

by archagon

7/2/2026 at 7:31:12 PM

[flagged]

by peder

7/2/2026 at 7:34:23 PM

As I said above, I care far more about the dehumanization of my fellow human beings than how open or closed the borders are. (It's possible to have sensible and humane immigration policy along any point on that axis.) Slandering immigrants as "invaders" or "parasites" should be met with the harshest possible rebuke, if not outright prosecution for hate speech.

by archagon

7/2/2026 at 7:47:59 PM

Pretty illuminating IMO. And it's enough to completely disregard your opinion on the matter. Because clearly you do not see this as a two-way road.

I'll listen up when you start railing against China for their restrictive immigration policies.

by peder

7/2/2026 at 6:24:15 PM

I think the immigration is what keeps Spain from turning into another Japan or Germany - a stagnant, overly old place stuck in time.

by vrganj

7/2/2026 at 7:51:45 PM

Better to have an economically stangnant country than tp have no country at all. The people make the country. We are not economic units to be moved around so that the line goes up. Immigration leads to erosion of a country.

by sucrosesucrose

7/2/2026 at 6:58:19 PM

And in Spain most immigrants are from Latin America with close enough culture and language to avoid most integration problems.

by fpoling

7/2/2026 at 7:55:54 PM

Even if it's the same language, they do not integrate. They stay in their own social groups and economic groups, almost like a "parallel society". And they bring their religion, evangelical christianism, which is nothing like ours.

by sucrosesucrose

7/2/2026 at 7:25:30 PM

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").

by ExpertAdvisor01

7/2/2026 at 6:31:48 PM

Germany has had an immense amount of immigration over the past couple decades.

by indoordin0saur

7/2/2026 at 6:46:11 PM

Immigrants but not immigration because there aren’t enough resources to help all the people to integrate.

by croes

7/2/2026 at 7:14:55 PM

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.

by wickedwiesel

7/2/2026 at 6:40:05 PM

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.

by snowpid

7/2/2026 at 6:37:41 PM

Just came back from Japan and I found it vibrant and modern.

by starik36

7/2/2026 at 6:49:43 PM

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.

by yitianjian

7/2/2026 at 7:56:59 PM

Change for the sake of change is what cancers are.

by sucrosesucrose

7/2/2026 at 7:14:28 PM

Why does it need to change?

by protonbob

7/2/2026 at 6:47:49 PM

Did you visit the countryside?

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

by croes

7/2/2026 at 7:21:05 PM

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.

by kazinator

7/2/2026 at 7:38:17 PM

Doesn’t change facts about Japan‘s problems. In certain parts they are just less visible.

by croes

7/2/2026 at 6:50:40 PM

Except they don't seem to be an Isreali puppet state

by mdni007

7/2/2026 at 6:31:40 PM

[dead]

by CommanderData

7/2/2026 at 6:24:10 PM

It seems in current discourse, turning a European country into another USA is a compliment.

by ks2048

7/2/2026 at 6:50:35 PM

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.

by croes

7/2/2026 at 7:20:58 PM

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.

by ks2048

7/2/2026 at 7:18:12 PM

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.

by kazinator

7/2/2026 at 7:29:56 PM

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?

by Dibby053

7/2/2026 at 8:21:09 PM

>Spain is not Somalia, why not let Indra do it?

The data may be safer with the CCP, at least they won't lose it.

by josu

7/2/2026 at 7:35:36 PM

[flagged]

by psoebasura

7/2/2026 at 5:23:02 PM

I really like what Spain is doing recently. If it weren't for climate change, I'd consider moving there.

by _ink_

7/2/2026 at 5:52:27 PM

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.

by Al-Khwarizmi

7/2/2026 at 5:28:55 PM

The current government has little chance to get re-elected, and the next one will revert most of these decisions.

by Xenoamorphous

7/2/2026 at 6:20:02 PM

It could be worse can only take a government so far. Eventually, just preaching to the choir catches up with you.

by ncruces

7/2/2026 at 5:38:11 PM

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.

by littlecranky67

7/2/2026 at 5:43:06 PM 

    and probably unaffected from climate change
No place is unaffected.

by b40d-48b2-979e

7/2/2026 at 6:21:23 PM

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.

by hecrogon

7/2/2026 at 7:55:29 PM

Ok but most of the populated areas of the Canary Islands are a tourist shithole, not somewhere you would want to live.

by Stevvo

7/2/2026 at 5:45:15 PM

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).

by Daishiman

7/2/2026 at 6:07:19 PM

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...

by littlecranky67

7/2/2026 at 6:44:34 PM

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.

by Daishiman

7/2/2026 at 6:13:32 PM

Galicia is supposed to be nice

by CalRobert

7/2/2026 at 6:03:16 PM

[flagged]

by breppp

7/2/2026 at 6:10:30 PM

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.

by pier25

7/2/2026 at 6:12:55 PM

I am talking about the current government corruption cases, I assume Mexico is worse, but Spain isn't great for Europe either

by breppp

7/2/2026 at 6:19:45 PM

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.

by fcatalan

7/2/2026 at 7:57:23 PM

calla ruc que ets un tros de ruc

by trosdesoca

7/2/2026 at 6:33:03 PM

This is pretty common in any country going through a populist phase, they go against the judicial, as is happening in the US

by breppp

7/2/2026 at 8:02:52 PM

what are you even talking about..

embarrassment of a child

by trosdesoca

7/2/2026 at 6:37:52 PM

Unfortunately this order will probably be revoked in 2027/2028, we'll see.

by gus_

7/2/2026 at 8:03:31 PM

It is possible and this in particular is a decision that I'm sure the US will pressure the government to reverse. However, it's misguided to see the entire world through the US political lens where reversing policy decisions is seen as a free win by the voting base. Spain's current democracy is only about fifty years old and extremism is viewed very negatively so outright undoing is generally less common then gradual undermining.

by munk-a

7/2/2026 at 7:06:01 PM

"The decision stems directly from growing official concern over the potential misuse of classified information linked to national security."

What are the specific concerns?

by sequoia

7/2/2026 at 7:09:21 PM

I imagine that’s classified.

by badgersnake

7/2/2026 at 7:58:56 PM

People in the comments here are praising the move, so presumably something is public. I've googled but I can't see some specific breach or documented misuse. Is the objection to Palantir strictly political?

by sequoia

7/2/2026 at 8:17:44 PM

There's been a lot of recent scandals going public against the social democratic party ruling on spain now (PSOE) and its previous dirigents. See Zapatero case. leaked by US agencies recently once Spain put some kind of friction to the Rota south spain bases getting involved on anything vs Iran.

The president P. Sanchez, has been clearly antagonizing Trump in these and other intl issues (even if only visible in spain, as he is not that relevant internationally, etc)

But anyways, this seems like deepstate fighting vs current US admin and current Spain admin, one can infer "Palantir" is basically a gag order away from giving the US govt anything it wants, so as an antagonist. to its current admin, it seems smart to avoid having them as critical providers.

why choose china? Makes no sense, but probably the only other big bro Spain can rely on if the US isn't it anymore

by tough

7/2/2026 at 6:52:06 PM

Look, this is not a bad thing per se, but the US reaction will tell you everything you need to know.

by chinathrow

7/2/2026 at 7:47:32 PM

palantir is good, actually

that is all

by abacadaba

7/2/2026 at 8:13:07 PM

The world's a scary place, but that's no excuse to make it worse.

by Fraterkes

7/2/2026 at 6:55:08 PM

why not simply make it illegal? why make it a ban specific to one company, are they trying to make their own copy?

by NooneAtAll3

7/2/2026 at 7:04:41 PM

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.

by dofm

7/2/2026 at 7:04:38 PM

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?

by RobertoG

7/2/2026 at 7:33:36 PM

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

It boggles the mind a bit, but I’ve seen a few comments on here with people defending them to the tune of “what’s the big deal, they just help governments with their data! They're innocent” which is uh, either aggressively naive, or just paid PR behaviour.

by FridgeSeal

7/2/2026 at 7:28:30 PM

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?

by Fairburn

7/2/2026 at 7:50:57 PM

Unfortunately, yes. The American right has looked at Russia as a model for what they want America to be for some time.

by RIMR

7/2/2026 at 7:36:57 PM

> The firm holds a €16.5 million contract signed in 2023 with the Armed Forces Intelligence Center (CIFAS), which is scheduled to expire this upcoming November.

> Military leadership, including the Chiefs of Staff of the Army and Navy, has lobbied Defense Minister Margarita Robles to renew the contract, citing the platform's operational superiority.

Palantir wins contracts because they are better at what they do. If Europe wants to maintain digital sovereignty while not being left behind they need to have a heart-to-heart conversation about how to fix that.

by bpodgursky

7/2/2026 at 7:44:19 PM

they have a great IT company in Spain, it's been winning a lot of contracts recently, that of the software genius Begoña Gomez (despite having no studies, just happens to be the wife of the mafia Capo Pedro Sanchez, but I am sure it's just a coincidence)

by psoebasura

7/2/2026 at 7:59:30 PM

Your argument is that the Spanish military is run by the mafia?

by bpodgursky

7/2/2026 at 8:01:49 PM

Well not hard to see. PSOE is a criminal organization and they happen to lead the government and as a consequence the military.

by trosdesoca

7/2/2026 at 8:13:47 PM

You have this backwards then, the chiefs of staff of the military are career roles, they are petitioning the minister of defense, which is a political position (PSOE), to keep Palantir.

by bpodgursky

7/2/2026 at 5:38:43 PM

Great news for Spain. I hope more European countries wake up to what's going on.

by emsign

7/2/2026 at 6:35:18 PM

Anything short of declaring them a proscribed organization is insufficient.

by Devasta

7/2/2026 at 6:58:21 PM

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.

by holoduke

7/2/2026 at 7:21:09 PM

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.

by CrzyLngPwd

7/2/2026 at 7:23:16 PM

[flagged]

by loeber

7/2/2026 at 8:10:46 PM

“offensively trivializing those who died in the Holocaust” - calling someone nazi or fascist is not trivializing Holocaust. These are clear terms and both Palantir and Karp often publish texts with fascist ideological elements and views. Read something they published like Technological republic. They are not hiding it.

It's not even some radical view.

by omnimus

7/2/2026 at 8:02:38 PM

[flagged]

by Laurel1234

7/2/2026 at 5:56:55 PM

[dead]

by CurbStomper

7/2/2026 at 5:59:43 PM

[dead]

by pirataespanyol

7/2/2026 at 5:28:06 PM

[dead]

by redsocksfan45

7/2/2026 at 5:37:14 PM

[flagged]

by juliusceasar

7/2/2026 at 5:43:13 PM

[flagged]

by fischermann

7/2/2026 at 3:41:15 PM

[flagged]

by psoeratas

7/2/2026 at 3:56:59 PM

What on earth are you even talking about

by Hugsbox

7/2/2026 at 7:29:37 PM

are you even spanish? do you know anything about Spain? no? the stfu

by psoebasura

7/2/2026 at 5:59:09 PM

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.

by moron4hire

7/2/2026 at 7:31:21 PM

no wonder you have so much time to write for free

as no one wants to pay to hear you

by psoebasura