Spain has been a melting pot of polarisation and mobilisation in recent months, culminating in the European Parliamentary elections in early June. National issues took centre stage, with the spotlight on Pedro Sánchez’s successful government formation after months of political turmoil. In July 2023, the right-wing opposition party People’s Party (PP), finished first in Spain’s general elections but was unable to form a coalition government with far-right parties. This gave Sánchez and the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) time to form a government with other parties, most notably the two main pro-independence Catalan parties — the Catalan Republican Left and Junts per Catalunya. However, as part of the coalition deal, PSOE promised amnesty to Catalan separatist leaders, a move that sparked a fierce backlash from the Spanish right. This has resulted in extreme polarisation, which came to the fore during the campaign for the European elections.

This is the national context that shaped our interview with Simona Levi from Xnet, a network of experts and activists investigating and proposing interventions in different digital rights fields with the mission to bring democracy into the 21st century. Xnet is working with Liberties on the Electoral Integrity and Political Microtargeting project. The project focuses on six member states and investigates how social media platforms are being used to circumvent campaign rules, as well as the failure of social media platforms to protect user’s private data. Although Xnet is still sifting through the data obtained from our partner, Who Targets Me, Simona, Xnet’s founder, was still able to share some of their early findings with us.

Left-wing parties spent twice as much as right-wingers

Using Facebook data, Xnet observed that left-wing parties, such as Sumar or Podemos, spent about double the amount of money on advertising than right-wing parties, like VOX. Simona believes this is due to the specific focuses of these parties, explaining how, for example, “VOX, which is the extreme right in Spain, doesn't spend a lot of money on Facebook but prefers to spend on YouTube. This attracts a younger audience through more dynamic and engaging video ads.”

Xnet observed that several Facebook pages with large followings promoted party ideals during the campaign. Simona explained that rather than traditional campaigning, these groups were attempting to foster an online environment sympathetic to a party’s message. “What is striking in these cases,” she said, “is that the funding behind these pages and campaigns are often not coming straight from political parties, but individuals from the network of the party are the promoters of these campaigns.”

Political campaigns disguised as grassroots initiatives

Simona believes this offers a clear example of astroturfing, a practice where marketing or public relations campaigns are disguised as grassroots initiatives, giving the illusion of spontaneous public support. Simona told us they observed a variety of Facebook pages from the left "talking about ecology, another talking about migrant rights”. The biggest "was a page from the Indignados Movement that was kept by Podemos, but nobody knows. Everybody thinks it is a neutral, Indignados page when in fact, it's a tool for a political party, but nobody knows. This one was the biggest page for astroturfing."

These campaigns are tied to election cycles, and Simona provided insights into the differing strategies of left-wing and right-wing parties. She explained to us how the left is typically more cyclical, increasing spending only during campaign seasons. Right-wing parties, however, are much more consistent, and for the most part maintain their advertising spending outside of campaign periods. Although Simona expected to observe these differences, she believes further evaluation of this data will offer insight into the increasing toxicity in Spanish politics, which will be useful for future advocacy.

Xnet & partners keeps pushing Google to change its advocacy policy

Looking ahead, Simona hopes for continued advocacy on Google's ad library. Liberties and six partner organisations are urging Google to revise its advertising policy to ensure comprehensive coverage of political advertisements. Beyond the electoral period, Simona is hoping to advocate for greater transparency of political advertisements. Xnet will continue its work championing transparency so the public knows what exactly political parties, organisations, and individuals are spending on advertising, and whether that money is fuelling polarising political messages. You can follow their work here.

More resources

In Conversation with Political Accountability Foundation | Election Monitoring Talks

Google's Ad Library Threatens European Election Integrity: Open Letter

EU elections unveiled: Who tries to influence your vote on Facebook?