Bogus videos of migrants torching churches go viral in wake of Ceuta incident

Bogus viral claims about migrants torching churches in the wake of the mass crossings into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in late July have been circulating online on social media platforms like X and Instagram. The past month alone, the Spanish-based outlet Maldita.es, says it has debunked seven such claims, racking up millions of views. “There is a significant machinery that ferments this kind of thing in the aftermath of a crisis all the time,” says Carlos Hernández-Echevarría, who works for Maldita.es. Speaking to EUobserver earlier this week, Hernández-Echevarría says many of those posts are from users he describes as opportunists. “The algorithm clearly loves it because there is no way you get 1 million views on X unless the algorithm is treating you the right way,” he added, in reference to Elon Musk’s social media platform. One post on X depicts a man removing a cross from a church rooftop and is captioned “Ceuta, in Spain”. It got 1.3 million views. The same video was posted on Instagram by another account, making the same bogus claim. In reality, the footage was recorded in West Bengal three weeks before Ceuta even happened. The desecration, in the original video, was reportedly carried out by a Hindu nationalist. Although X has since posted a community note debunking the original post, Hernández-Echevarría says there is no telling how many have seen the bogus content before other users false-flagged it. "Still the exposition is huge," he says. Church burning aside, other viral videos and images of large numbers of migrants in Ceuta have also circulated. Some of those are also bogus, feeding into a toxic narrative of an invasion likely designed to divide. Maldita.es has also uncovered a network of Israeli accounts that are sowing division by claiming Ceuta belongs to Morocco via #FreeCeuta hashtags.