Casa África and the Government of the Canary Islands are training security and emergency forces to "combat the lies" that are spread about migrants in order to alleviate the biases they generate in the population, in a program taught by the Maldita.es foundation, which fights against disinformation.
According to the Director General of Casa África, José Segura; the Head of Education at Maldita.es, Lucía Gómez; and the technician from the General Directorate of Training, Studies and Research in Public Security of the Canary Islands Executive, Montse Fillol, this was the purpose of the workshop offered this Friday to 80 of these professionals, similar to those previously given to 180 secondary school students and library and archive staff.
José Segura stated that the public diplomacy institution he directs, "impacted by the evolution of events transmitting disinformation in an intense way, has considered that one of its obligations is to combat lies and contribute to ensuring that the truth and rigorous analysis of events reach citizens with full intensity".
In this course, police and emergency personnel who work with the migrant population have addressed "realities they know, but with the aim of deciphering them and separating lies from reality", said Segura, who stressed that one of the lines of work of Casa África's strategic plan for the next three years, which has also been one of the important routes of work in recent years, is "the defense of the values of beings who, due to very different circumstances, are forced to emigrate".
"Destructive messages about the personality of those who are forced to board a dinghy have been malevolently introduced into many sectors of the citizenry. We have a moral obligation to transmit the truth, to remove those hoaxes that circulate," he asserted.
They are not criminals, nor do they have preference or higher remuneration
The director of Casa África alluded to the messages that warn that "you have to be careful with emigrants because there is a very high number of criminals", which he countered by stating that "they are not, they are normally human beings who are fleeing, precisely, from massacres that occur in countries, especially in the Sahel".
He also denied other hoaxes referring to the fact that immigrants are treated before residents in health centers, "a falsehood, like those linked to their higher economic remuneration".
"We have an obligation to open our eyes to the truth, fundamentally to young people, and I wish all public administrations would carry out these cycles to contribute to making this society better and better," he added.
Maldita.es trainer Lucía Gómez specified that this course analyzes "disinformation narratives linked to migrations and hate speech and hoaxes that are detected in them and that are being generalized, shared and consumed through social networks and instant messaging".
It also addresses "how the consumption of this disinformation affects" and how these contents generate "biases".
"We have seen organized disinformation campaigns and a flood of this type of content affects people's trust in institutions and security forces," she said.
The main disinformation narratives linked to migration are those related to criminality, those directed towards unaccompanied minors, and those also linked to the danger it entails for our culture".
Hoaxes that appeal to fear or anger and create discredit
"These are narratives that have been repeated constantly for many years and that continue to work because they appeal to people's fear and concern and, through that fear or anger, make it easier for people to believe them," she explained.
As these "disinformation crises" generate distrust in institutions, and also discredit with respect to police and emergency forces, this workshop instructs these professionals in the hoax detection system used by Maldita.es, which warns that "the most important thing is to realize when a content is really trying to appeal to primary emotions and when it confirms our ideas a lot".
It also recommends contrasting this information always with official sources, "not believing the first thing that comes to us", and checking if there are other media that are reproducing it.
Lucía Gómez has admitted that, increasingly, we are exposed to more disinformation because those who spread it are very organized, even becoming political parties, and they always attack the same people.
From the General Directorate of Training, Studies and Research in Public Security of the Government of the Canary Islands, the technician Montse Fillol, has highlighted that this initiative "tries to sensitize the bodies that assist migrants in the whole spectrum of action".
It is about helping them to identify hoaxes and 'fake news' in social networks so that they can stop them by offering truthful information to the population, she said.
