Declassified documents released by the Spanish government revealed that WhatsApp groups used by migrants contained nearly 200,000 members each.
Posted by Behind the Bastards, Checked
- Sources
- 5 contradict
- Said
- 1 time·
- Confidence
- 88%
Behind the BastardsOct 3, 2026
The declassified CNI message cited by AP, Reuters and BBC describes two WhatsApp/social media groups with a total of about 180,000 followers, not nearly 200,000 members in each group. The claim's per-group figure roughly doubles the documented per-group figure of about 90,000.
What was said
… Many of the WhatsApp groups, for example, that in this situation people were referencing, there was at least two groups that had almost 200,000 people on the WhatsApp groups, yeah. And this is not a conspiracy theory because, actually, coincidentally, yesterday, a number of declassified documents were released by Spain, and so these Spanish documents revealed that there were some of these WhatsApp groups had almost 200,000 people on each of them, um. And so, if you think about it, that's just a fraction of the people, you know. So, the issue is not how information travels, it's just whether people choose to act on that information, how verified they think that information is, and so that was …
Behind the Bastards · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Contradicts. The declassified CNI message reads "There are two different groups with a total of 180,000 followers," which gives a combined total for two groups rather than near-200,000 per group.[1][2][4][5]
Contradicts. Reuters and BBC report the same CNI warning that the groups had about 180,000 followers or recipients in total, which is inconsistent with each group holding nearly 200,000 members.[2][3]
Context. The documents were released on September 8–9, 2026, while the post refers to release "yesterday" relative to an October 3 posting; the date mismatch does not affect the membership figure.[1][2][3]
Sources
5 sources: 2 fact-checkers, 1 tier 1, 2 not rated
- 1Spain's spy agency warned of Ceuta border breach plans before crisis, declassified files showapnews.com · fact-checker · cited for: contradicts, context
- 2Spain's spy agency warned of plans to storm Ceuta before ...reuters.com · fact-checker · cited for: contradicts, context
- 3Spanish intelligence warned of Ceuta mass crossing plans ...bbc.com · tier 1 · cited for: contradicts, context
- 4Spain's spy agency warned of Ceuta border breach plans before crisis, declassified files showksnt.com · not rated · cited for: contradicts
- 5Spain's spy agency warned of plans to storm Ceuta before mass migrant crossing, documents showkansas.com · not rated · cited for: contradicts
Where this claim was made
Said in 1 published post
Related claims
- Spanish intelligence informed the Spanish government that significant migrant movement was expected in mid-July 2026.Mixed
- 60,000 migrants stormed the border of Ceuta, Spain.Mixed
- Migrants took over a Spanish city of 80,000 people.True
- Approximately 70,000 migrants attempted to cross into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta on August 10, 2026.Mixed
- Approximately 70,000 migrants crossed into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta from Morocco in September 2026.Mixed