A subset of Twitter accounts taken down by the company in June 2019 participated in an inorganic campaign to amplify pro-Catalan independence narratives, the DFRLab has confirmed. In addition to engaging in this inorganic campaign, some of the accounts also demonstrated signs of foreign influence.

After decades of separatist tensions, the Catalan Parliament declared independence from Spain in October 2017, following a referendum in which roughly 92 percent of the votes favored independence while roughly 3 percent were against it. When the Spanish Constitutional Court ruled the referendum illegal, Spain descended into its worst constitutional crisis in 40 years. As pro-Catalan independence leaders and activists clashed with the government in Madrid, a parallel battle unfolded on Twitter.

At the time, the DFRLab reported on various claims of “fake news” and suspicions of foreign influence leveled by leaders on both sides.

A map of Spain highlighting the semiautonomous region of Catalonia. (Source: @KaranKanishk/DFRLab)

Twitter’s actions included the removal of 130 accounts in Spain that the platform described as “directly associated” with the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), a pro-Catalan independence party. According to Twitter’s blog post on the takedown, the accounts engaged in “spreading content about the Catalan Referendum” with the “intent to inorganically influence the conversation in politically advantageous ways.”

The Spain dataset belonged to a more expansive archive released by Twitter on state-backed foreign influence operations, as part of the platform’s attempt to promote greater transparency related to elections.

An Inorganic Hashtag Campaign

A network of accounts used the hashtag #FemXarxa to push pro-Catalan independence narratives. #FemXarxa received the most retweets of any hashtag in the dataset, at roughly 7,500 retweets. It was often accompanied by content highlighting Catalonia’s struggle for independence from Spain.