SPAIN: Anit-Muslim Twitter feed in Spain! The account’s Twitter user claims to be an Islamic fundamentalist who resides in Spain and has sympathy for violent extremists as well as nostalgia for the periods more than 600 years ago when Muslims were in charge of the country.
The views are just as phoney as the account. They are part of a broad, unofficial campaign by far-right nationalists in Spain to use social media to inflame anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant sentiment and to erode confidence in Spain’s multicultural democracy. They sometimes abuse Twitter’s lax policies to promote violent threats and hate speech, while in other instances, they impersonate Muslims to denigrate real adherents of Islam.
Those behind the so-called Reconquista movement are using social media to communicate, coordinate, and evangelise, following the same strategy used by far-right extremists in the US, Brazil, and other nations who have used social media to grow their influence and attract new supporters.
Reconquista also mimics the language of American far-right organisations and even some of their online memes, including Pepe the Frog, a crudely depicted amphibian who has served as a mascot for white supremacist and anti-government organisations there. Pepe is portrayed as donning the attire of a Spanish conquistador from the 16th century in one Reconquista meme.
As in the US and other nations, Spanish nationalists have pounced on discussions over trans rights, distributing false information about the exploitation of kids and alleged plots to abolish the concept of gender. Additionally, they have criticised feminism, the COVID-19 vaccination, initiatives to combat climate change, and support for Ukraine following Russia’s invasion.
Joel Finkelstein, the co-founder of the Network Contagion Research Institute, a Princeton, New Jersey, organisation that collaborates with Rutgers University on the Network Contagion Lab, a training and educational centre focused on cyber threats, said the striking overlap of tactics and interests is not a coincidence; rather, it demonstrates how far-right organisations in numerous countries are learning from and emulating one another’s triumphs.
“This is a recipe for disaster. All over the world, we’re seeing different manifestations of the same kind of problem. The flags are all different, but it’s remarkable how similar the memes are,” said Finkelstein.
Finkelstein stated that one concern is that rhetoric could spark real-world violence.
The Middle Ages’ successful attempt by Christian authorities to retake sizable portions of the Iberian Peninsula from its Islamic rulers and drive Muslims out gave rise to the term “reconquista.” Some on the extreme right, who view their hostility towards immigrants and Muslims as a sort of divinely ordained continuation of that terrible, centuries-long struggle, embrace the term.
Anti-Muslim rhetoric from Reconquista-related accounts grew when a Moroccan man attacked two Catholic churches in January in the southern city of Algeciras, which led to the murder of a church official and the injury of a priest. While authorities wait for the results of a criminal investigation, an unauthorised immigrant is being kept in a Spanish prison’s psychiatric section.
Following the attack, violent threats against Muslims gained traction on Twitter. Many of these threats broke the network’s rules, and in certain cases, the platform took action by removing the material or suspending the author. However, the authors of the post frequently just opened a new account days after they were banned.
Reconquista gained online notoriety because of the far-right Vox party, which frequently used the phrase in tweets prior to the 2019 election. Vox currently has 52 seats, or the third-highest number, in Spain’s 350-member lower legislative body, and its members frequently express strong anti-immigrant sentiments. The party’s Twitter account was momentarily shut down in 2020 for accusing its detractors of encouraging paedophilia and again in 2021 for stirring anti-Muslim sentiment.
Santiago Abascal, the party’s head, has frequently alluded to the Reconquista, including in a tweet from the previous year. After eight centuries of Islamic invasion, “Today is the anniversary of the reconquest of Granada, an indelible memory of the day the recovery of the entire national territory was completed,” he wrote.
La Reconquista supporters frequently fly Spanish flags in their profiles, and some openly celebrate Francisco Franco, the fascist leader whose power came to an end more than 40 years ago. Muslims are frequently referred to as “Moors,” a derogatory historical name for Muslims from North Africa. One makes ex-President Donald Trump’s image their profile picture.
Spain responded to efforts to restore its reputation by enacting legislation last year that made it unlawful to glorify the dictator. Franco’s remains were retrieved from a mausoleum inside a lavish memorial complex the fascists constructed in 2019. In a nearby cemetery, he was reburied.
Far-right organisations have worked to change how the public views historical occurrences, including the Holocaust, slavery, and, more recently, the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Marc Esteve Del Valle, a professor at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands who has researched La Reconquista’s use of the internet, claims that by omitting the specifics of the historic Reconquista or Franco’s dictatorship, La Reconquista seeks to legitimise its own anti-immigrant-beliefs-as-traditional Spanish values.
In this way, the internet serves as a tool for influencing politics and public discourse, not only as a venue for Reconquista supporters to connect and exchange information.
“Social networks are tools to organise and mobilise. It’s where the movement lives,” said Esteve Del Valle.
Twitter, the microblogging platform, has significantly reduced its employee focus on ferreting out misinformation, extreme content, and hate speech since it was acquired by Elon Musk. The business didn’t respond to the messages asking about La Reconquista.
A number of informally organised far-right groups have utilised social media in a similar way in recent years.
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