This is how parties try to reach young people through pseudo-media on social networks

BarcelonaThe far-right has been generating synergies with fake media for years to influence public opinion. But it is not an exclusive strategy of this political space, at least in Catalonia. A journalistic investigation confirms that Comuns and ERC manage and finance content platforms in web format and through social networks aimed at the younger public. These are El Moment (ERC) and La Futura (Comuns), two digital channels that, in the eyes of the public, present themselves as media outlets, but are used as tools for disseminating the ideology of political parties. The PSC, for its part, has created Posem el focus, a podcast in which they do not explicitly state their political brand.

Since Oriol Junqueras returned to the party's presidency and Elisenda Alamany joined as general secretary, the republicans' communication strategy has taken a turn. After the controversies about the parallel structure maintained by members of the previous executive to carry out false flag campaigns –the most talked-about case is that of the Maragall posters–, they were forced to rethink the team. Now, a large part of it is made up of members who were part of Alamany's cabinet in the Barcelona City Council. Her arrival has led to the implementation of new strategies, especially in the digital sphere.

One of these new elements is the creation of communicative brands that in the public sphere are not related to the party, but are promoted from Calabria. The most recent case is that of the social media native pseudo-medium El Moment. The social media profile is defined as a channel of "news, current affairs and analysis" and, as the ARA has been able to ascertain, it is managed by the party itself through a communication agency, PlayBrand, whose founder is the head of digital for the Republicans, Xevi Montoya. The profile, which now has almost 7,500 followers and accumulates hundreds of thousands of views, began its activity in November 2025.

The channel's content aligns with the party's political strategy. For example, months before the candidate for Barcelona published the video about 24-hour supermarkets, El Moment had already circulated this same idea with another content capsule. Party sources deny that it wants to appear as a media outlet: "We believe it can be useful as a platform to introduce topics that interest people from a sovereignist and left-wing perspective." Other sources, however, explain that the intention is to create a kind of opinion diary or current affairs platform with the party's frameworks.

The profiles chosen to be influencers in the pseudo-medium are figures directly or indirectly related to the Republicans' structure, or profiles that already have a track record on social media. One of the members of the @nomimporta channel, a current affairs profile with almost 22,000 followers, is the person who manages the content of El Moment, according to various sources consulted by the ARA.

The case of 'La Futura'

Republicans are not the only party that uses this practice. Comuns also does. In 2019, during the start of Ada Colau's second term in Barcelona, they created La Futura, a digital platform that came to light in 2021 and replicated the format of a media outlet. Sources close to the party explain that it was born "with the will to create an alternative narrative about the city council to that of traditional media and major newspapers in Barcelona".

Today, La Futura takes the form of a website and an Instagram account (15,200 followers), TikTok, and Facebook. The same username –@lafutura.info– evidences the intention to pass itself off as an informative platform, which presents itself with the slogan "The news that is explained from where it happens". The Sentit Comú Foundation – an entity of the party, with the same physical and fiscal address – is who acts as content manager.

In its beginning, La Futura was conceived as an alternative television intended to be broadcast on YouTube. Two years ago they stopped publishing on this platform and made a change in image. Under the same umbrella, Comuns have resumed the commitment to current content on social networks and the website. "Our aim is to inform with our own perspective on local issues in the city of Barcelona," explain party sources, who add that Barcelona en Comú finances the maintenance of the website and collaborations are voluntary.

This strategy is also used by the PSC with the podcast Posem el focus, as confirmed by the party, with the difference that this channel does not aim to inform. As in the other two cases, there is no party logo, but in this case the content creators are basically party officials, especially young people. "The intention was to generate a more informal communication channel with young deputies to reach a certain type of audience, using typical resources of TikTok and Instagram language," explain socialist sources consulted by ARA.

Deontological problems

The strategy of promoting political content through pseudomedia is common and has been part of the modus operandi especially of the far-right for years. Now, the rest of the parliamentary spectrum has seen a niche to penetrate groups of the population that are harder to reach, such as young people.

In the academic and deontological world, however, this strategy generates mistrust, because it further blurs the line between information and propaganda. Joan Maria Morros, dean of the Col·legi de Periodistes, is categorical: "What they do is confuse citizens. From the Col·legi, we find this to be absolutely reprehensible – he explains –. This is not a communication medium, it is a channel to disseminate the party's ideologies." Montserrat Arbós, director of the journalism degree at the Blanquerna Faculty of Communication, also criticizes this working mechanism: "They do a disservice to democracy, to journalism, and to the necessary trust that must exist between these two powers," she comments.

Now that social media has become the main information channel for the population, these strategies open up the debate on how citizens can distinguish between profiles that do journalism and those that do not.