Barcelona unrest spread through TikTok, but organizers remain unknown

Political scientist Xavier Torrens urges caution over competing explanations and distinguishes Barcelona's looting from France's initially demand-led protests.

Channel: RTVE Noticias ·

SpainStory of October 27, 2026Trari Newsroom

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Claves de los altercados que sacudieron Barcelona el fin de semana: ¿Quién está detrás? | RTVE

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0:23Torrens says TikTok calls helped organize the disturbances outside traditional civic and political structures.
0:44Extremist involvement and foreign interference are discussed as hypotheses; Torrens says the organizers remain unknown.
2:16He urges caution about competing partisan accusations during the election campaign.
2:44Torrens says more than half of those arrested were minors.
3:09He distinguishes France's initially demand-led demonstrations from what he describes as Barcelona's direct turn to looting.
4:20He warns against stigmatizing young people collectively while examining social media's influence on younger participants.

Calls circulated on TikTok, but that does not establish who organized Barcelona's weekend unrest. That distinction runs through political scientist Xavier Torrens's interview with Spain's public broadcaster RTVE Noticias, as police investigate the looting, fires and street disorder.

The broadcaster puts the final arrest count at 128. The Mossos d'Esquadra, Catalonia's regional police force, are investigating who was behind the disturbances and whether they could recur in the coming days.

Torrens, a sociologist and political scientist at the University of Barcelona, argues that the events were not spontaneous: they were organized through social media rather than conventional civic or political organizations. But he emphasizes that the organizers' identity remains unknown.

Asked about possible outside involvement, he discusses explanations ranging from extremist groups to foreign interference or hybrid warfare. He presents these as investigative hypotheses, not established findings, and cautions against accepting politicians' competing accusations during an election campaign. The interview does not identify a group responsible.

Torrens also draws a distinction between Barcelona and the unrest in France. In his account, the French events began with demonstrations expressing demands, whereas Barcelona's disturbances started directly with vandalism and looting. He therefore resists treating the two as interchangeable expressions of the same protest movement.

The ages of those arrested are another focus. Torrens says more than half were minors, describing that level of teenage involvement as a new and worrying feature. He links social media to participation at younger ages, while warning against stigmatizing young people as a whole. His assessment also stresses that vandalism carries a tangible cost for residents.

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