About thirty entities gathered this Tuesday in front of the Girona Palace of Justice to denounce hate speech spread on social networks. The collective action seeks for the Provincial Prosecutor's Office to investigate two influencers for a crime punishable by up to four years in prison.
The focus of the complaint is a video published on the Instagram profile girona_perduda a few weeks ago. The images show a person in the Plaça de la Independència stating that they go out to hunt Moors when they get bored because those who commit crimes are Moors.
The gravity of the visualizations
Ouheir Daraaoui, spokesperson for the entities, explained that the expression used totally denigrates the Arab community. The thousands of followers greatly aggravate the phrase of going out to hunt Moors and increase criminal liability according to current regulations.
"A causal relationship cannot be established between the immigrant population and crime" - Ouheir Daraaoui, spokesperson for the entities
Daraaoui added that crime itself also constitutes hate speech. Those promoting the complaint warned that they will act as popular prosecution if the prosecutor's office decides to open proceedings against the authors of the content.
Previous attacks in the city
The tension is not limited to the digital sphere. The Ateneo 24 de Junio and the Ateneo Popular Salvadora Catà suffered attacks in November through stickers with very difficult-to-remove glue. These fascist incidents are on the rise and another similar attack occurred in April linked to the reported profile.
Cristina Arana, another of the spokespersons, stressed the danger that these messages remain unpunished. Freedom of expression is not for saying just anything and requires clear limits to protect the citizenry.
"It is dangerous for these types of speeches to go unpunished" - Cristina Arana, spokesperson for the entities
The Girona City Council and the Generalitat of Catalonia have already reported the case, according to the organizers. The profile girona_perduda declared to Diario de Girona that what was said responded to their perception of crime and that they would repeat the statement if the criminals were Catalan or Russian.
The account managers indicated that they will continue to inform from freedom of opinion and will take legal action against those who have filed the complaint. The Prosecutor's Office must now determine if the facts constitute a punishable hate crime.