Xenophobia and Fake News. Analysis of the confused news flow. Maldita Migración Project.

Résumé

The term "fake news" is translated as false news and its intention is to misinform. Although as Wardle (2017) expresses, it goes beyond a simple definition, it is a complete ecosystem of information and they are presented with different forms and intentions. Behind them there is an objective “to influence and manipulate an idea or event, creating another alternative and parallel event that causes confusion and deceit” (De la Varga, 2019). Among the disseminated hoaxes are those of xenophobic content, those whose protagonists are immigrants.
The objective of this research is to analyze and typify the bulls about migration in Spain, reflecting the possible purpose or intentionality of their promoters or broadcasters. This will be done by Maldita Migración, a journalistic project that uses data verification tools to find the truth in the information that circulates on this topic. As expressed on its website, the bulos "seriously affect groups that are often in a situation of vulnerability [...], harm coexistence and deny the contributions that people from different places make to our society" (2019). In the first 20 days of January 2019, those responsible have denied 50 bulos on migration and refuge in Spain. In addition, one of every three bulos for which Maldita.es has been consulted since June 2018 has to do with the potential misinformation about migration (2019).
That manipulation and hoaxes on immigration and refuge are a constant in a country like Spain is very worrying, if we take into account the report of the United Nations World Population Policies of 2015, which states that it is the tenth state with more migrants in the world, to which we must add that the Spaniards head the European list of those who give more truth to the fake news, according to Ipsos Global Advisor (2018). These data support the need to know what is spread about them, what consequences it can bring among its inhabitants and to raise the role that the circulation of these hoaxes can have and the dissemination of xenophobic discourses in the image that Spaniards have of migrants arriving at our country.