El Observatorio Español del Racismo y la Xenofobia detecta más de 40.000 contenidos de odio en redes sociales en junio

During the month of June, a total of 40,861 contents related to hate speech and discriminatory narratives disseminated through the Internet have been detected, according to the social media monitoring bulletin corresponding to June 2026.

Messages that allude to citizen insecurity, in many cases decontextualized or false, agglutinate 69% of the detected content, while the sports field, with 16% of the messages monitored, is the second of the triggers. Specifically, during the celebration of the World Cup, a significant presence of racist and Islamophobic messages associated with national teams, fans and athletes was detected. The report especially includes the volume of hostile content spread around the player of the Spanish national team Lamine Yamal, which motivated discriminatory comments related to his origins and identity.

On the sample of selected and notified content, the withdrawal rate by platforms stood at 61%, four percentage points below the one recorded in May, when it reached 65%.

The analysis, prepared by the Spanish Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (OBERAXE), attached to the State Secretariat for Migration, is based on data obtained by the FARO system, and allows the identification of trends, detonating episodes and patterns of dissemination of discriminatory messages detected in the main digital platforms.

Differences in the response of platforms

The OBERAXE newsletter shows that there are still significant differences in the effectiveness of the reporting mechanisms used to report illegal content. In the case of communications made by private users, the platforms withdrew 10% of the content reported, a percentage slightly lower than the one observed the previous month. Likewise, 5% of the messages were deleted during the first 24 hours after the report, an additional 1% during the next 48 hours and 4% within a week.

On the other hand, communications managed through the trusted flagger or trust channel recorded a withdrawal rate of 51%, two percentage points less than in May. The results confirm the greater effectiveness of this specialized route for the detection and removal of potentially illegal content, reinforcing the importance of institutional cooperation with digital platforms.

The differences are also reflected when analyzing the behavior of each platform. TikTok recorded the highest withdrawal rate, with 98% of reported content removed, eight points higher than the month of May. X reached a rate of 93%, while Facebook withdrew 62% of the reported content. On the other hand, Instagram removed 32% of the reported messages and YouTube reached a rate of 8%, concentrating all its withdrawals on the trusted flagger route.

 

People of North African origin remain the main target group

The analysis of the target groups of hate speech shows that people of North African origin concentrated 88% of the content analyzed, consolidating themselves as the group most affected by these discriminatory narratives. This percentage represents an increase of ten percentage points compared to the month of May, thus prolonging the upward trend observed during the last months.

Messages directed against Muslim people accounted for 11% of the registered content, which is a reduction of fourteen percentage points compared to the previous month. The content directed against people of African descent reached 7% of the total, four points less than in May. Messages directed against people from Latin America and against the Jewish community were also identified, although with significantly lower percentages.

The dehumanization in the analyzed messages grows

As for the type of content disseminated, the June newsletter highlights a significant increase in messages that dehumanize or severely degrade target groups. This category reached 48% of the total content monitored, twenty-five percentage points more than the previous month. According to the analysis, this increase reflects the persistence of dynamics of normalization of hostile attitudes towards vulnerable groups in digital spaces.

The messages that present the target groups as a threat accounted for 32% of the total, while those that incite expulsion reached 10%. Likewise, 6% of the content included messages that promoted violence, 3% praised those who attacked these groups and 1% encouraged discrediting the affected groups.

The form of expression used in these speeches continues to be characterized by a high degree of aggressiveness. 89% of the analyzed content used explicit aggressive language through insults, threats or disqualifications directed against migrants and other racialized groups. In addition, 10% used irony or sarcasm as a mechanism to spread discriminatory messages in an apparently humorous way.

The report also notes that 32% of the content incorporated images, videos, memes or encoded language. This type of resource facilitates the viralization of messages, and makes it difficult both to identify them and to detect them early by automated content moderation systems.

Citizen insecurity and sport, the main catalysts

Among the episodes that promoted the dissemination of hate speeches during the month of June, citizen insecurity concentrated 69% of the detected content. It is followed by the sports field as the second trigger factor, with 16% of the messages monitored.

The analysis highlights the persistence of narratives that generally link migrants with phenomena of crime, social conflict or disturbances of public order, both from current events and through the dissemination of false or decontextualized content.

Public policies accounted for 11% of the contents analyzed and were mainly linked to debates on inclusion and integration measures and the extraordinary process of regularization of immigrants promoted by the Government. For its part, the contents related to sexual assaults reached 9% of the total, while those related to terrorism and the arrival of boats accounted for 3% and 2%, respectively.

The data collected during June show the continuity of discriminatory narratives directed against immigrants and racialized groups in the digital environment. The monitoring developed by the FARO system allows us to identify the evolution of these phenomena and reinforce the collaborative actions with the technological platforms to improve the detection, notification and removal of content that is contrary to coexistence, equal treatment and fundamental rights.

The newsletter can be consulted at the following link: https://run.gob.es/yfl2786e