The Spanish international Barcelona player Lamine Yamal accounted for 6 percent of total hate messages in the sporting field spread on social networks during the month of November, according to the Spanish Observatory of Racism and Xenophobia (Oberaxe).
Oberaxe detected a total of 39,054 racist and xenophobic messages on social networks during the month of November, 51% of which were deleted by the platforms.
Lamine Yamal was once again the main target of these sporting attacks, after being expelled from the Spanish national team on November 11 for submitting to “an invasive radiofrequency procedure to treat your pubic discomfort” without the Spanish Football Federation being aware of it. After that, messages abounded comparing the Barcelona striker to animals.
As shown in the latest monthly monitoring bulletin prepared by the Spanish Observatory of Racism and Xenophobia, the total number of messages with racist or xenophobic content recorded on the networks reached 779,198 with 39,054 detected during November.
In this period, 51% of hateful content detected was deleted by the platforms and it became the month with the best withdrawal before July, when the numbers skyrocketed because of the events in Torre Pacheco.
Instagram is the social network with the lowest removal rate of racist and xenophobic content, at 25%. The list is led by TikTok with 79%, followed by X, with 65%.Facebook, with 59%, and YouTube, which removed 28% of this content.
76% of hate messages are directed against people from the Maghreb
Hostility expressed online during November focused on people in North Africa 76% of racist messages, a figure that increases the data from the previous month by 16 points, and 13% of this content incited the expulsion of migrants.
Additionally, messages dehumanizing foreigners are the most common 69% of the total, or 24 percentage points more than in October, Oberaxe therefore warns against the risk of normalization of these discriminatory behaviors in the digital environment.
Citizen insecurity, the core of hatred
The insecurity of citizens has been consolidated as the main trigger of hate speech, since 74% of the total messages referred to it.
The Observatory underlines that “a significant part” of the content linked to insecurity concerned the publication of data on the nationality of people detained by the Basque Country police and linked migrants to crime.
At the same time, after the Government’s announcement of a contribution of 46 million euros to the Palestinian National Authority, content criticizing the use of public resources for foreigners and they linked this news to the idea that immigrants, and particularly unaccompanied minors, are those who receive the most public assistance.
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