Racist content on the networks is on the rise, using a more "aggressive and sophisticated" speech

The Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration of the Spanish Government has detected more than 54,000 racist contenton social networks in June , a figure that reinforces a "worrying trend" that they have made with a "more aggressive and sophisticated" speech. They highlight the increase in hate speech against people in North Africa in particular.

According to data from the latest bulletin of the Spanish Observatory on Racism and Xenophobia (OBERAXE), which monitors hate speech on social networks, more than 54,000 content containing hate speech was detected last June, a figure that reflects the "worrying" trend in the digital environment in the first half of 2025.

Among the most worrying data is that hate messages to peoplein North Africa have increased by 12 percentage points from 69% in May to 81% in June.

The report further shows that 56 per cent of the contents detected are subject to dehumanization, while 22 per cent relate target groups to public insecurity and 14 per cent directly encourage expulsion from the country.

According to another report, 95% of messages are addressed to migrant men, while most use explicitly aggressive language (89%) and there are codes, emoji or indirect expressions to avoid moderation filters.

However,only 29% of the messages  were deleted by the platforms, and there are significant differences between them: TikTok withdrew 92% of the messages, Facebook 40%, Instagram 23%, but YouTube 5% and X 9%.

In recent months, hate speech on social media has increased, and has also become more aggressive and sophisticated in terms of dissemination.

By 2025, attacks have been repeatedly concentrated on a single target group, the peopleof North Africa, who in March were targeted by 57% of hate messages and in June by 81%.

This sustained growth has coincided with sporting events, violent events or out-of-context news that have served as a catalyst for racist and xenophobic speeches.

The types of messages have also stabilized around alarming patterns: more than half systematically resort to the dehumanization of migrant groups and one in five portrays them as a threat to the population, while in recent months the presence of hostile messages addressed to unaccompanied minors or Muslims has been reduced.