Ceuta: 9,590 hate messages in two days and a fight over the narrative
9,590 hate messages in 48 hours during the mass crossing into Ceuta, Spain: OBERAXE detects a spike that reopens the debate between counting and censorship.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
9,590 hate messages in 48 hours: the figure dividing opinion over Ceuta
Eighty thousand people crossed into Ceuta, a Spanish enclave in North Africa, in two days, and the hate radar registered 9,590 hostile messages. The proportion clashes with the narrative of an unleashed wave of racism: just over one message for every eight arrivals. Even so, the Ministry of Inclusion considers it a "spike" and highlights it as the trigger of the monthly increase.
The Spanish Observatory on Racism and Xenophobia (OBERAXE) detected those 9,590 posts between 30 and 31 July. The July bulletin raises the total figure to 57,406, up from 40,800 in June. 68% of those posts target people from North Africa, who remain the main target group.
The reaction: counting or censoring?
The publication of the figure has peine another battle. Some argue that measuring hate on social media is a necessary tool to curb the escalation, but others see the counter as a cover for censorship. The argument repeats itself with variations: instead of managing the migration crisis on the ground, the Government focuses on monitoring what is written on social media. The comparison with the number of arrivals (80,000) has become the sceptics' favourite weapon: "Fewer messages than invaders," they conclude.
With the data on the table, the underlying question remains open: is hate fought by counting it, or does counting it feed the very machinery it claims to fight?
Eighty thousand people crossed into Ceuta, a Spanish enclave in North Africa, in two days, and the hate radar registered 9,590 hostile messages. The proportion clashes with the narrative of an unleashed wave of racism: just over one message for every eight arrivals. Even so, the Ministry of Inclusion considers it a "spike" and highlights it as the trigger of the monthly increase.
The Spanish Observatory on Racism and Xenophobia (OBERAXE) detected those 9,590 posts between 30 and 31 July. The July bulletin raises the total figure to 57,406, up from 40,800 in June. 68% of those posts target people from North Africa, who remain the main target group.
The reaction: counting or censoring?
The publication of the figure has peine another battle. Some argue that measuring hate on social media is a necessary tool to curb the escalation, but others see the counter as a cover for censorship. The argument repeats itself with variations: instead of managing the migration crisis on the ground, the Government focuses on monitoring what is written on social media. The comparison with the number of arrivals (80,000) has become the sceptics' favourite weapon: "Fewer messages than invaders," they conclude.
With the data on the table, the underlying question remains open: is hate fought by counting it, or does counting it feed the very machinery it claims to fight?
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (31 replies).
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