It has not all been positive during this World Cup, with a “significant presence” of racist and Islamophobic messages detected on social media, particularly directed at the Spanish player Lamine Yamal, but also against other players and national teams.
This has been highlighted by the Spanish Observatory on Racism and Xenophobia (Oberaxe) of the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, which has recorded more than 40,000 instances of hate speech detected on social media in June and identifies the world of sport as the second most frequent trigger, accounting for 16 per cent of the content monitored, after public safety concerns, which account for 69 per cent.
This study shows that 61 per cent of the content reported was removed by digital platforms: TikTok recorded the highest rate, with 98 per cent of reported content removed; followed by X, at 93 per cent; Facebook, at 62 per cent; Instagram, at 32 per cent; and, in last place, YouTube, at 8 per cent.
This organisation highlights the volume of content directed against Yamal on the basis of his background. The national team player is a Spanish national of Moroccan descent on his father’s side and Equatorial Guinean descent on his mother’s side.
Other issues, such as the government’s recent initiative to regularise migrants, sexual assaults, terrorism and the arrival of boats carrying migrants, have also sparked hateful and racist messages on social media.
All of this is aimed at a clear and specific target group: people of North African origin, who account for almost 90 per cent of hate messages. 88 per cent of these insults and comments are directed at them, which is ten percentage points higher than in May.
Messages targeting Muslims accounted for 11 per cent of the content recorded, representing a fall of 14 percentage points, whilst content targeting people of African descent also fell by four percentage points, accounting for 7 per cent.
The report highlights messages directed against people from Latin America and the Jewish community, although the percentages are significantly lower.
This study by the observatory warns of a “significant increase” in messages that dehumanise or seriously degrade others, which have risen to 48 per cent of the total – 25 percentage points higher than the previous month.
Messages portraying target groups as a threat accounted for 32 per cent, whilst those inciting the expulsion of foreign nationals accounted for 10 per cent.
This content is characterised by its aggressive nature: 89 per cent of the content analysed used explicit aggressive language, including insults, threats or disparaging remarks, whilst 10 per cent resorted to irony or sarcasm to spread discriminatory messages.
32 per cent of the content included images, videos, memes or coded language – elements that make messages more likely to go viral, whilst making them harder to detect.
An article written by RTVE.es/EFE (RTVE), initially published on 20 July 2026, 12:20 (CEST)