Francisco Polo runs the Spanish division of the world’s largest cyberactivism platform.
Born into a comfortable middle class family, and after finishing university, Francisco Polo was preparing for exams to join the diplomatic corps. He changed his mind the day after a successful campaign he had organized via his blog forced the Socialist government of the day to pass legislation banning the manufacture of cluster bombs in Spain. That was in September 2007, when the 26-year-old realized that he didn’t need to be part of the system to change the world.
A few months later he joined the Socialist Party, and for the next couple of years organized online campaigns, notably for the 2009 European Parliament elections. But he decided to leave mainstream politics in 2010, when he set up Actuable.es. Within 18 months, the start-up, which he initially ran from his living room, had become Europe’s main online platform for activism, accumulating 2.5 million registered users, all looking for ways to bring about change in society. Among his achievements is the right of same-sex parents to register children born via surrogate mothers abroad with the Spanish consulate as Spanish citizens, and the amnesty given to Miguel Montes Neiro, who was released earlier this year after spending 35 years in prison for non-violent offenses.
Last year, Actuable.es merged with San Francisco, California-based Change.org, the world’s largest platform for what has become known as cyberactivism, bringing together around 15 million people worldwide. Francisco Polo now runs the site’s Spanish division, employing six full-time staff, and sharing office space with another organization along co-working lines. Talking to Polo, it’s hard sometimes to see where the activist ends and the entrepreneur begins.
More info: El País.es