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Graffiti with the face of Pedro Sánchez, President of the Government of Spain, and the slogan “thanks Pedro”, “only Pedro saves the people” or “this town was saved by Pedro” have been painted on several walls in Valencia on November 9; the same day a protest was organized due to the mismanagement of the Administrations in the face of the the DANA (the Spanish acronym for high-altitude isolated depression, a weather phenomenon that recently caused serious flooding in Valencia and other eastern regions of Spain). They have gone viral on social networks accusing Sánchez’s party, the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE, for its Spanish initials) of being responsible for them.
There are some users who also say that it is a “false flag” campaign. In this article we tell you the facts we know, such as that on November 7 a troll account that we have been reporting on Maldita.es since 2023 and that pretends to be a left-activist posted templates to screen-print these slogans.
The “Thank you Pedro” campaign and the trolls pretending to be PSOE militants and activists of the left wing
We cannot say who started this campaign or who did the graffiti on the streets, but we can tell you the chronology of some of the trolls and fake accounts that we have already warned you about on Maldita.es:
On November 7 at 8 pm, two days before the campaign went viral and the graffiti were made, the troll profile Jacinta Rebolledo posted on Twitter (now X) silkscreen templates with the following slogans: “Gracias Pedro” (“Thank you Pedro”), “Solo Pedro salva al pueblo” (“Only Pedro saves the people”) and “Este pueblo lo salvó Pedro“ (“This town was saved by Pedro”).
On the 8th at 7 pm, a third troll account already identified by Maldita.es pretending to be a socialist militant, Trinidad Mendizábal Novo, uploaded another tweet with one of these silkscreens (although it was not real).
Other troll accounts detected by Maldita.es also participated by retweeting Jacinta Rebolledo's first publication.
The graffiti that have shown up in Valencia and their viralization
On November 9 at 1 p.m. a well-known Twitter account with more than 300,000 followers, @willytolerdoo, uploaded several photos and videos of this graffiti in Valencia. It was the first account that posted the images in the streets of Valencia with the slogans “thanks Pedro”, “only Pedro saves the people” and “this town was saved by Pedro”.
These graffiti are real and use the same slogans and templates that the troll account Jacinta Rebolledo had uploaded on Twitter two days earlier.
At the time of publication of this article, there is no evidence that the graffiti has been made by socialist militants or supporters, neither has it been claimed by any group or organization critical of the Spanish government. This is the chronology and data of how the first records on Twitter are from troll accounts posing as socialist or left-wing militants and that had already been reported by Maldita.es in the past.
How to detect a troll account
As Marcelino Madrigal said to Maldita.es, a computer expert in network analysis, “the way of posting constantly and always mentioning accounts and the same content” can give a clue if an account is a troll.
Although trolls are more difficult to identify than parody or fake accounts, to detect this type of profiles and not to be fooled by their publications, you can follow a few tips:
Their profile picture is not their own and is taken from the Internet. We have detected that several of these accounts do not use their own images, but other images taken from the network. A reverse search is your best ally to detect if these profiles are who they say they are.
The profile creation date is recent. Misinformers tend to maintain their activity constantly through several accounts in case they are deleted. Check that the profile has not been created recently.
They tweet consistently in the same time frame. Troll accounts tend to maintain a very intense and regular activity.
Check what Twitter lists they belong to or if they are involved with other troll accounts. As we mentioned, misinformers often interact with other similar profiles. Checking which lists they belong to or who they interact with using tools such as Twitonomy can clear up any doubts.
Emergency situations are a favourable situation for the appearance of hoaxes. Thus, at Maldita.es we continue to debunk hoaxes and disinformation related to the floods and various conspiracy theories since last Tuesday 29 October. It is essential: trust only official sources and, when in doubt, it is preferable not to share them. Here you can consult tools and sources for information on the DANA phenomenon in Valencia and eastern regions of Spain that is sweeping across Spain.
