Maldita.es and Oxfam Intermón launch the Frena.Verifica.Comparte campaign to fight disinformation about migrants

In Spain, 80% of the population has heard, at least, a hoax about migrants and 54% think that there is so much disinformation in society that they no longer believe anything. These data, from the “Barometer of disinformation and hate speech against migrants”, show the extent of disinformation and the complexity that the population faces in distinguishing information from hoaxes. 

To help citizens identify and stop the online spread of disinformation about migrants, the Frena.Verifica.Comparte campaign is being launched today, an initiative promoted by Maldita.es, Oxfam Intermón, Mundo en Movimiento and the Association of Workers of the Home and Care of Zaragoza. 

From digital to the street

Frena.Verifica.Comparte offers educational content, online games and innovative tools, such as a WhatsApp chatbot (+34 644 22 93 19) where the population can report possible hoaxes, verify them in an automated way and share the disproved ones.

All the contents are aimed at finding out what forms anti-migrant disinformation takes and what objectives it pursues, to discover and use tools and channels directly to Maldita.es to verify possible hoaxes. These resources are available on the website https://frenayverifica.maldita.es .

The campaign will reach the streets of Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Zaragoza and Seville during the first week of September with actions to raise awareness and activate citizens in verifying information.

This campaign is part of the Righting the Wrongs project, supported by the European Union’s Rights, Equality and Citizenship 2014-2020 program.

The community’s power

«We have launched this campaign to respond to a large part of the population that is concerned about racism and xenophobia, which requires more training and more verification journalism in a context of misinformation, polarization and hate speech», says María José Gascón, head of Oxfam Intermón’s Zero Inequality Program.

For Clara Jiménez Cruz, founder and CEO of Maldita.es, «in order for society to engage in the fight against disinformation, it needs tools to identify and understand the problem and its effects. With this campaign, we want to put special emphasis on strengthening and increasing the role of a sensitized and educated community that can stop migration hoaxes».

«Disinformation breaks social coexistence, reinforces stereotypes and prejudices about migrants and increases the exposure of all of us to hateful narratives», says Diana G. Mosquera, representative of the Association of Household and Care Workers of Zaragoza, who warns that «the widespread dissemination of hoaxes hides the social reality of migrants and racialized people, our contributions, our values and our experiences».

María Peñalosa Méndez, promoter of the Mundo en Movimiento organization, highlights that “this campaign invites us to act together to promote a dialogue based on tolerance and respect. Stopping disinformation, verifying it with facts and data, and sharing new elements for the debate on migration are steps that enrich the struggle for equal opportunities and rights for all people”, she explains.