Unaccompanied migrant minors are the target of the majority of hate speech on social networks, with content that dehumanizes them and presents them as a threat to society.
This is one of the main conclusions of the Annual Monitoring Report on Hate Speech on Social Networks presented this Tuesday by the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz, at the press conference after the Council of Ministers.
Saiz has denounced the proliferation of hate speech on social networks against unaccompanied minors, who are presented as a threat to society. In fact, 45.5% of the speech they are subjected to directly links them to citizen insecurity.
In addition, aggressive language is used towards them (in 65.09% of the content in which they are mentioned) that overlooks the fact that they are children without the guardianship of their parents or relatives and in a situation of extreme vulnerability.
The population of Moroccan origin is the target of most hate speech on social networks and racist and Islamophobic content is the majority on the five main digital platforms, which only removed half of the messages reported in 2023.
The report, the result of daily monitoring of hate speech online carried out by the Spanish Observatory of Racism and Xenophobia (OBERAXE), shows that people originating from North Africa, followed by Islamophobia, are the two target categories to which the most hate content is directed (33.7% and 26.2% respectively of the total).
In 2023, 2,655 cases of racist, xenophobic, anti-Semitic, anti-Gypsy or Islamophobic hate content were reported that could constitute a crime, administrative offense or violate the rules of conduct of internet platforms (the five monitored networks, which are Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Youtube and X).
Of these, 53.7% dehumanize or seriously degrade the people to whom it is directed, and 21.6% incite the expulsion of the immigrant community.
According to the report, the "citizen insecurity" prototype is the most frequent trigger of the observed hate speech (39.5% of cases) and is generally linked to the target groups free of charge. The expression of hate speech most associated with "citizen insecurity" is explicit aggressive speech (43.3%).
"This stigmatization creates a hostile environment. In addition, it can fuel fear and resentment towards certain groups of the population, dragging us into greater fragmentation and social conflict," the report notes.
It warns that the five monitored platforms removed less than half of the reported content (49.4%) and only 18.8% in the case of notification by a normal user, which means that reports of potential hate speech made by citizens are unlikely to be removed.
"The culture of hate speech that spreads through social networks has a devastating impact on the most vulnerable groups in society," the report warns, which denounces that these speeches "deprive the people who suffer them of their humanity and blame them for their fate."
In addition -it warns- negative messages have a psychological and physical impact, sometimes producing pathologies, increase vulnerability and the feeling of insecurity, and hinder the normal development of the lives of the victims.
And it regrets that in recent years, the superposition of refugee crises, migratory emergencies, economic and health crises, as well as the extensive use of the internet and social networks, have revealed the potential of hate speech to promote the polarization of society and to violate people from certain groups, especially those of immigrant origin.
