The mass arrival of migrants in Ceuta at the end of July triggered a wave of hate speech online, with 9,590 discriminatory messages detected on social media over 48 hours, Spain’s Observatory of Racism and Xenophobia, or OBERAXE, said.
The messages were recorded July 30 and 31, when large numbers of migrants arrived in the Spanish enclave from Morocco. OBERAXE said the episode was one of the main factors behind a broader increase in hateful content during July.
Its FARO monitoring system detected 57,406 instances of hate speech and discriminatory narratives on social media during the month, up from 40,800 in June.
The 9,590 messages linked to the Ceuta influx accounted for nearly one-sixth of the total hate content monitored during the month.
OBERAXE also reported an increase in platforms’ responsiveness to hate content flagged through its monitoring system. The overall removal rate reached 70% in July, nine percentage points higher than in June.
Among content reported directly by users, platforms removed 12% of flagged messages, compared with 10% in June. About 9% were removed within 24 hours, 1% within 48 hours and 2% within a week.
X recorded the highest removal rate at 93%, followed by TikTok at 88%, Facebook at 74% and Instagram at 71%. YouTube removed 14% of reported comments. OBERAXE said Instagram’s removal rate doubled from the previous month.
North Africans remained the main target of monitored hate speech, appearing in 68% of the analyzed content.
Although the figure declined from June, OBERAXE said hostile narratives targeting North Africans continued to account for the largest share of the hate content monitored online.
The data highlight the role of major migration events in driving online discriminatory narratives, particularly against North Africans and migrants, according to the observatory.