The arrival of migrants to the Canary Islands and their reception in different parts of Spain have focused the hate speech detected on social networks during the month of September by the Spanish Observatory of Racism and Xenophobia (OBERAXE). This is reflected in the latest report published by this body, which depends on the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, the first to be published on a monthly rather than bi-monthly basis, as until now.
In the month of September, 152 hate messages have been detected - compared to 506 in the past months of July and August as a whole - and, so far in 2024, 2,310 have been counted.
The analyzed speeches have been linked to the arrival of migrants to the coasts of the Canary Islands, to the reception of these people in different parts of Spain and also to the debate regarding the political management of migration.
In fact, according to the report, the use of terms such as “invasion” and “kalergi plan” has been detected, a conspiracy theory that posits immigration as an orchestrated form of population replacement.
People from North Africa, in the spotlight
Regarding the groups to which this hate speech is directed, OBERAXE points to people originating from North Africa, who have received 37% of the notified content, followed by immigrants in general (33%), Afro-descendants (21%), and Muslims (13%).
During the past month of September, messages directed at unaccompanied migrant minors have decreased significantly, from being the target of 19.2% of messages (in July and August) to 1% in this last month analyzed.
The main trigger for xenophobic messages is citizen insecurity (34% of cases), sometimes based on false information, hoaxes or decontextualized incidents. Another 34% of these messages do not directly refer to any specific episode.
26% of messages incite violence
Regarding the typology of the content, this September has been dominated by those that promote the discrediting of their victims based on stereotypes (38%) and the dehumanization and degradation of people (34%).
In its report, OBERAXE points out that 26% of the messages incite violence with direct or indirect threats, another 26% presents immigrants and/or people of foreign origin as a threat and 13% advocates for the expulsion of foreigners.
In addition, almost half of the analyzed content (48%) contains explicit aggressive speech, with insults and other incitements to violence, while 45% use non-aggressive discriminatory expressions and 7% use irony and sarcasm to conceal racist and/or xenophobic comments.
Platforms remove 10% of notified hate messages
By social networks, the one that has received the highest number of notifications for hate messages in September has been X, with 39% of the total, followed by YouTube (19%), Instagram (16%), Facebook (13%) and TikTok (13%).
Among all, they have removed only 9.87% of the reported content, a much lower rate than the 37% registered in the last report, relating to July and August.
A difference that the report attributes to the fact that, being a monthly analysis, platforms such as TikTok, which in the past bulletin appeared as one of the platforms that removed the most hate messages, have not had time to respond to notifications through the channel they normally use.
OBERAXE has recalled that next Thursday, the Ministry led by Elma Saiz will sign an agreement with LaLiga to collaborate in the prevention and fight against hate speech in the sports field.
Through this agreement, LaLiga will transfer to the Ministry its MOOD measurement tool, which allows capturing hate speech through expressions, terms and keywords, which will allow OBERAXE to measure, analyze and combat this type of messages more agilely.
