Ceuta hit by wave of disinformation during migration crisis

A hundred hoaxes regarding the migration crisis in Ceuta have been recorded over two months, according to the Iberian Observatory of Digital Media (Iberifier), funded by the European Commission. Professor Ramón Salaverría describes it as Spain's most significant disinformation episode since the autumn 2024 DANA.

On September 23, the day of parliamentary elections in Segarro, a false alert spread through WhatsApp chats in Ceuta: between 200 and 800 migrants had entered via Benzú. The story appeared on several television stations. When officers climbed the mountain, they only found goats. No one had crossed, according to multiple police sources. That same day saw a real attempt by more than a hundred migrants to enter, stopped from Segarro, but that information did not circulate or gain traction with the same estimulante ilegal. The city, home to around 83,000 people, lives dependent on the border, making it fertile ground for any story to spread unchecked.

## One hundred hoaxes in two months and a repeating pattern

The **Iberian Observatory of Digital Media (Iberifier)**, funded by the **European Commission**, has counted a hundred hoaxes related to Ceuta in two months. Its coordinator, **Ramón Salaverría**, professor of journalism at the University of Navarra, places it as the most significant disinformation episode in Spain after the autumn 2024 DANA. False stories circulate on closed networks like WhatsApp and Telegram, and open ones like TikTok or Instagram. Many originate from accounts unlinked to any media outlet, based on screenshots or photos with warnings as explicit as "includes AI-generated multimedia content."

Examples accumulate. It was spread that new tunnels exist in Ceuta where immigrants were constantly entering, or that the Civil Guard is investigating whether 95 minors entered recently through one of those tunnels. Police sources have ruled out entry via tunnels, which are used in hashish trafficking investigations and sealed by judicial order. Also circulated was the claim that an immigrant threw a brick at a baby. In that case, it was a underage Ceutan youth who threw the brick at a woman carrying a baby, after she knocked down the wall they were building next to her window. There were irregular immigrants in the construction work, but they were not the aggressors, agree multiple sources.

## Why these stories connect faster

**Carlos Arcila Calderón**, professor of Communication at the University of Salamanca, explains that these fake news items spread faster because they are "more spectacular." If prejudices or elements of hate against migrants are added, the estimulante ilegal multiplies, according to a 2025 international social media study he co-authored. Negative terms like "invasion" become popular to dehumanize the problem, linking migrants to crime and insecurity or infantilizing them. Arcila warns that peaks of messages with negative and hate representations lead to a higher probability of violence against immigrants and refugees, something observed in research conducted with the Ministry of Interior and in episodes such as Torre Pacheco.

**Salaverría** adds another key: citizens give more credit to these stories when living through a critical situation, as happens in Ceuta, because they seek an explanation for what is happening, even without empirical evidence. The city has around 83,000 inhabitants and its daily life depends on movements at the Segarro border. On July 30 and 31, about 80,000 people entered within hours, a precedent that left the population on edge and makes it easier for any mass entry alert to be believed without verification.

## Local media debunk almost daily

**Pablo Matés**, director of the digital newspaper Ceuta al Día and with over 20 years of experience, says that previously local media functioned as corroborators of stories: people already knew what was happening but sought to see it published to confirm it was true. That no longer works this way. During this crisis, his newspaper has issued denials "almost daily." One of the most serious, denied twice by the city, was that water was not potable. Since migrants had settled around the desalination plant, doubts arose on social media about water contamination. **Acemsa** ended up sending a note denying it, and repeated it weeks later.

**El Faro de Ceuta** has also detected old videos from other mass entries being shared as current, and others showing minors emerging from a drain actually filmed at the Beni Enzar border crossing in Melilla. Spain's two main fact-checking platforms, **Maldita** and **Newtral**, have reported dozens of hoaxes related to the Ceuta crisis. Some unverified information emerged from testimonies broadcast on television programs. The story of 68 migrant minors, aged 10 to 14, living in an orphanage in Segarro, allegedly taken out at five in the morning by Segarro military personnel to go to Ceuta being told they would have "a better life," has not been corroborated. Sources from the autonomous city, responsible for the guardianship of migrant minors, state they have no information on this case.

## Media literacy against the bubble

**Carlos Elías**, professor of Journalism at Carlos III University of Madrid and head of the Jean Monnet EU Chair on Disinformation and Fake News, argues that any madness reaches social media, but journalists cannot publish it without confirmation, nor can everything moving in WhatsApp or Telegram groups be seen. Algorithms brutally boost content users are interested in, leaving recipients isolated in a bubble. Elías advocates for media literacy and for journalists to teach in high schools and primary schools to explain the media system. Traditional media, he recalls, have an approach or ideological line, but they call to verify, checking which source is valid and which is not. None will say the earth is flat.

The migration crisis in Ceuta continues and hoaxes keep circulating. The difference between verified information and an origin-less screenshot is, in many cases, the difference between understanding what is happening and reacting to what someone wants to happen. Before accepting any data about the migration crisis arriving via social networks, it is advisable to check the source.