Nearly 60% of anti-migrant Facebook posts in Morocco contain fake news, report finds

Nearly six in 10 anti-migrant publications on Facebook in Morocco contain false information, while nearly half of the content analyzed expresses explicit hatred or stigmatization, according to a new report by MigraPress. The third edition of the MigraPress Barometer analyzed 814 Facebook posts to examine how migrants are portrayed online. The report found that 59.6% of the 810 posts assessed for misinformation, contained false information, distorted claims or misleading content. It identified stigmatization and explicit hate speech as the most common forms of hostility, accounting for 385 publications, or 47.3% of the total.

Security and criminality dominate online discussions

Security and crime were the leading themes in the publications, appearing in 45.2% of the corpus. Culture, identity and religion followed, representing 15.4%, while national sovereignty accounted for 14.5%. Economic and employment issues represented 11.2%, while health and epidemics accounted for 7.5%. The report found that 94.1% of publications discussing national sovereignty fell into hostile categories, with the theme frequently used to justify exclusion, discrimination or calls for expulsions and tighter border controls. Migrants and people of African origin were the main targets, appearing in 70.8% of the corpus. The category included references to sub-Saharan migrants as well as Senegalese, Ivorians, Cameroonians, Malians, Sudanese, Chadians, Ethiopians and other African nationalities. The report identified attacks targeting migrant women and children, highlighting the vulnerability of groups facing overlapping forms of discrimination. Public institutions and political actors were targeted in 88 publications, or 10.8%, while civil society organizations and rights defenders appeared in 37 posts, representing 4.5%.

August records highest share of hostile content

The report classified 558 publications as hostile, with 238 showing high intensity, 197 moderate intensity and 120 low intensity. That means 42.7% of hostile posts were classified as high intensity, while more than three-quarters displayed moderate or high levels of hostility. Nine publications contained violence or incitement, a relatively small share of the corpus but one the report considered particularly concerning because of its potential to encourage real-world violence. Conspiracy theories also featured prominently in the findings. Nearly 79% of publications classified as conspiratorial contained fake news, while the rate reached 67% among stigmatizing posts and 66.5% among explicitly hateful content. Even publications classified as informative were not immune to misinformation, with 39% containing false or misleading information. The report found a concentration of publications during the summer. Of 613 posts correctly dated in 2026, 559 were published between July and September, accounting for 91.2%. August recorded the highest proportion of hostile content, at 67.8%, followed by July at 62.4%. In September, hostile publications represented 54.8% of the total, even as the overall volume of posts increased.

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