The recent migration incident in Ceuta led to a dramatic spike in online hate speech, with the Spanish Observatory on Racism and Xenophobia (OBERAXE) detecting 9,590 posts within just two days, coinciding with the large-scale arrival of migrants on July 30 and 31, which the government estimated at approximately 80,000 individuals.
According to the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, this surge increased the total number of hate-content items recorded in July to 57,406, a significant rise from the 40,800 documented in June.
The monthly report indicates that people from North Africa continue to be the primary targets of hate speech on social media, representing 68% of all content detected in July. Posts targeting immigrants comprised 19% of the total, followed by those aimed at Muslims (16%), individuals of African descent (10%), and Latin Americans (7%).
Public Safety Concerns and Global Events Fuel Hate Speech Trends in July
Public safety emerged as the dominant theme in hate speech during July, comprising 48% of the analyzed content, much of which broadly associated migration with criminal activity.
Sport-related posts accounted for another 34% of the content, significantly influenced by the Football World Cup, which amplified racist, xenophobic, and Islamophobic rhetoric targeting players, national teams, and fans. Migration policies were the focus of 17% of the content, followed by posts about sexual assaults (5%), terrorism (4%), and the arrival of boats (1%).
OBERAXE, reporting to the State Secretariat for Migration, found that four in ten posts dehumanize or severely degrade their targeted groups. Approximately 38% of the posts contained threats, 15% called for expulsion, 4% incited violence, 2% sought to discredit the targets, and 1% praised individuals who attacked them.
Platforms Enhance Efforts to Remove Hate Content
The report reveals that 60% of the content featured openly aggressive language, including insults, threats, and slurs. About 34% relied on irony or sarcasm, while 33% utilized images, videos, memes, or coded language—tools that facilitate spread and complicate automatic detection.
OBERAXE’s findings show an improvement in platforms’ removal of hate content, with 12% of user-reported posts deleted, up from 10% in June.
Roughly 9% of reported content was removed within the first 24 hours, with an additional 3% disappearing over the following week. The use of the “trusted flagger” system—referring to verified reporters—enabled the removal of 58% of flagged content, marking a seven-point increase from the previous month.