EU Commissioner Urges Social Media to Fight Fake News After Mass Migrant Surge on Ceuta

European Commission Vice-President Henna Virkkunen has called on social media platforms to step up their fight against disinformation, following an attempt by tens of thousands of migrants to cross from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta. According to her, the crisis was fuelled in large part by a false claim circulating on social media that the border had been opened.

"We need stronger monitoring and closer cooperation on fact-checking," Virkkunen said.

What happened at the border

Spanish authorities report that around 72,000 people illegally crossed into Spanish territory on 30–31 July. The vast majority — some 70,000 migrants — were swiftly returned to Morocco by Madrid. Eighty people died attempting to reach Ceuta by sea.

Was it a coordinated operation?

According to an analysis of open-source data by the tech firm Golden Owl, the events in Ceuta were, with high probability, a deliberately staged operation rather than a spontaneous chain of events.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz