Russia used Ceuta's migration crisis to spread far-right narratives
Photo: Migrants at the border between Morocco and the Spanish enclave of Ceuta (Getty Images)
After the situation in Ceuta escalated, social media was flooded with far-right narratives. Some of them were actively spread by accounts linked to Russia, according to The Guardian.
According to an analysis by the 411 disinformation research group, accounts linked to the Russian military and far-right movements reached more than 500,000 people in the first days of the crisis.
Researchers noted that Russia-linked accounts regularly spread destabilizing narratives in Europe, particularly about migration. At the same time, the scale and speed of the campaign surrounding Ceuta drew particular attention from experts.
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How the events in Ceuta were amplified
The crisis began on August 1 after tens of thousands of people attempted to cross the border from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta. According to reports, around 49,000 people attempted to enter the enclave overnight the previous day.
The events quickly became a topic of intense discussion on social media. Far-right accounts portrayed the situation as a deliberately organized "assault" and hinted at possible involvement by the authorities. Some posts were accompanied by Islamophobic and antisemitic conspiracy theories.
According to 411, these narratives were spread in seven languages and gained more than 720,000 views in just six hours on August 1. For the analysis, researchers examined around 4.5 million social media posts.
At the same time, some far-right accounts called on nationalists to travel to Ceuta and "patrol" businesses and residential buildings. Researchers believe some of these calls may have been coordinated.
How the Russian connection emerged in the campaign
A separate information "counteroffensive" began on social media as the situation escalated. One source of propaganda content was the Rybar Telegram channel, which is linked to Russian intelligence. The channel's parent company is under European Union sanctions.
Rybar posts were then picked up and circulated by networks of relay accounts. These included pages linked to the Pravda network, which researchers describe as an operation for spreading Kremlin propaganda in countries around the world.
Saman Nazari, a lead researcher at Alliance4Europe, said the way the information was disseminated could indicate the presence of a certain structure or coordination mechanism.
"Quite regularly, we are seeing this escalation happening across Europe now, with these types of crises. It is too much of a coincidence to be a bandwagoning effect," he said.
Why this is concerning
411 researcher Ned Mendes compared the current situation with the 2021 crisis, when around 8,000 migrants crossed the same border from Morocco into Spain.
According to him, far-right narratives spread much faster this time. Calls to mobilize nationalists managed to bring groups of people together in central Ceuta within just a few days, whereas a similar process took much longer in 2021.
411 believes that the main danger lies not only in the specific crisis. Researchers point to the formation of a relay network that can quickly pick up similar events in different parts of Europe and give them the desired media exposure.
That is why, according to experts, the next migration or border crisis could become a new opportunity for already established disinformation networks to operate.
Earlier, RBC-Ukraine reported on how the migrant breach in Ceuta divided the EU and played into the Kremlin's hands.
We also reported that Spain will build a barrier along the Ceuta border after tens of thousands of migrants breached it.
