Lorraine Williamson
Spain has reached a new milestone in the fight against online abuse. For the first time, social media platforms are removing more than half of all detected hate messages.
Yet the figures reveal a stubborn contradiction. Despite tougher moderation, online hate in Spain remains deeply embedded in digital debate, with hundreds of thousands of racist and xenophobic posts still circulating every year.
The latest data comes from OBERAXE, Spain’s official observatory on racism and xenophobia, which monitors discriminatory content across major platforms.
Fewer messages, but still tens of thousands
In November alone, researchers identified just over 39,000 racist or xenophobic messages. That figure was the lowest in seven months, but context matters.
Across the first eleven months of the year, almost 780,000 hate messages were detected. The monthly dip does little to soften the wider reality: online hate in Spain remains a persistent social problem rather than a passing spike.
Platforms stepping in more often
Moderation efforts are clearly increasing. For the first time this year, platforms collectively removed more than 50% of flagged hate content.
TikTok leads the way in intervention rates, followed by X and Facebook. By contrast, Instagram and YouTube remove a noticeably smaller share of reported posts.
The differences highlight how uneven moderation remains, even under growing regulatory pressure at European level.
Who is being targeted?
The data paints a stark picture. People of North African descent are the main targets, appearing in around three-quarters of all hate messages detected.
Muslims are also frequently targeted, although there has been a slight decline in the volume of messages aimed specifically at them. Researchers stress that even small shifts in language trends can have a significant impact on affected communities.
Dehumanising language on the rise
One of the most worrying trends is the tone of the abuse itself. Increasingly, migrants are portrayed as inferior, undesirable, or even inhuman.
This type of language now dominates online hate content. Calls for deportation remain widespread, but have stopped rising, suggesting that hostility is becoming more entrenched rather than more extreme.
Crime narratives and sport as flashpoints
Many hate messages are framed around insecurity. Moreover, migrants are routinely blamed for crime, violence, or social decline, often without evidence.
Sport also continues to act as a lightning rod. High-profile athletes are frequent targets of racist abuse, including teenage football star Lamine Yamal, who has faced waves of racist comments on social media despite his on-pitch success.
Faster removals, lasting harm
Researchers acknowledge that quicker intervention is a step forward. However, they warn that removal often comes too late. Harmful posts can be shared, screenshotted, and amplified long before they disappear.
Online hate in Spain does not stay online. It fuels polarisation, normalises exclusion, and shapes public attitudes in ways that are difficult to undo.
Why moderation alone is not enough
The record number of removals shows that platforms can act when pushed. What it does not solve is the culture that allows such content to flourish in the first place.
As Spain tightens oversight of digital platforms, the challenge now is broader: reducing the demand for hate, not just the supply.
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