A wave of social media disinformation is believed to have played a large part in the deadly rush of tens of thousands of men, women and children into Spain’s north African territory, after a rumour that the Ceuta border was open spread on social media.

“Platforms must act decisively in keeping the integrity of the digital space, in particular during crisis situations,” said Henna Virkkunen, commissioner for tech sovereignty, security and democracy.

“Monitoring must increase, cooperation with fact-checkers to be strengthened,” said Virkkunen, adding the EU would be “following up on Monday”.

Spain moved swiftly to send people back from Ceuta, announcing Tuesday that of 72,000 people who entered the enclave from Morocco on July 30-31, all but 2,000 had returned. Spanish authorities said 80 people died in the crossings.

The incident was pounced on by right-wing voices as evidence Europe is under siege from uncontrolled immigration. It has caused a diplomatic rift between Spain and fellow EU member Italy, which pushes a tough line on migration.

The EU’s migration chief Magnus Brunner on Tuesday described the Ceuta episode as a “test” of the bloc’s border security and “resilience to disinformation”.

The crossings were “fueled by criminal smuggling networks and also disinformation,” Brunner said, while cautioning it was “too early” to say who was behind the online “instrumentalization” of the situation — whether smugglers or a foreign power such as Russia.

He warned however that the EU “must strengthen our capacity to follow misinformation trends on social media, working hand in hand with Europol and all other EU agencies.”

An open-source investigation by technology company Golden Owl has concluded “with a high degree of confidence” that the migrant rush “was a deliberately organised operation”.

AFP, along with other media outlets, is paid by some platforms (Meta, Google, TikTok) for work to tackle disinformation.