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On May 5, while thousands of travellers were still affected by disruptions on the high-speed rail network, Spanish Transport Minister Óscar Puente claimed that the incident had been caused by “sabotage.” Just a few hours later, a little-known website called Micrófono Roto began posting images on Facebook and Instagram accusing the Popular Party—without evidence—not only of orchestrating the alleged AVE sabotage, but also of being behind the nationwide blackout that had occurred the previous week. Although Micrófono Roto had fewer than 200 followers on any of its Meta platform profiles, its posts reached half a million views that day.
€40,000 invested in Meta campaigns to multiply their reach in four months
The disproportion between their follower count and their impact is due to paid advertising. Between May 5 and 7, Micrófono Roto published 13 ads on Facebook and Instagram accusing the PP of sabotage. Some used AI-generated images or videos of crowded train stations and darkened streets, accompanied by captions like “The right is sabotaging Spain.” These ads appeared 1.2 million times and cost between €8,800 and €10,087, according to Meta’s Ad Library.
This wasn’t the first time these profiles had spent money to reach more users. Since February, Micrófono Roto and another similar website called Pensionista Cabreado have spent nearly €40,000 on Facebook and Instagram ads attacking the PP over its handling of the DANA storm, VOX for the far-right Patriots for Europe summit held in Madrid, and the Andalusian government led by Juanma Moreno. That’s an average of €10,000 per month—almost double what the PSOE spent on both Meta platforms during the same period (€20,913), and nearly equal to the national Popular Party’s investment (€40,242).
Thanks to an international investigation coordinated by Polish fact-checker Demagog, we know that both Spanish websites are linked to at least three others accused of conducting an influence campaign during last Sunday’s elections in Poland: Wiesz jak nie jest, Stol Doroslych, and Tarcza Wschód Polska. The first two spent over €100,000 on Facebook and Instagram ads in just two weeks—more than any other political actor in the country—to promote a specific candidate and spread claims of potential election fraud.
Here’s how the story began.
Minimal content, but massive reach: 18 million impressions in four months
In early February 2025, two new players entered the Spanish online political content scene. Named Micrófono Roto and Pensionista Cabreado, both registered their domains on the exact same day: February 6. Today, both use the same web template and design style. They also launched Facebook and Instagram accounts simultaneously, and their content is nearly identical: targeting right-wing political parties.
Their content output is minimal: each has produced fewer than a dozen posts over the course of three months, and their follower counts are very low—neither reaches 200 followers on Facebook or Instagram. Yet their reach is significant: Pensionista Cabreado has achieved nearly 60,000 impressions, while Micrófono Roto has accumulated 1.1 million—over 3,600 times its total follower count. Still, that’s only a small part of their actual reach.
How is it possible for virtually unknown accounts to reach such a large audience? One way is through paid advertising. While investigating that possibility, we uncovered an entirely different side of Micrófono Roto and Pensionista Cabreado: they are also major investors in online political advertising. In their short lifespan since February 2025, they’ve launched at least 161 campaigns on Facebook and Instagram, all targeting right-wing parties. Together, they’ve spent nearly €40,000 on Meta ads—more than the PSOE during that period, and nearly as much as the Popular Party.
Even more striking is the audience impact: while it was initially surprising that four accounts with fewer than 200 followers each could generate over a million impressions with under a dozen posts, we now know that the ads paid for by these accounts have achieved more than 18 million impressions.
A curious ‘timing’: the beginnings
Micrófono Roto and Pensionista Cabreado appeared in February 2025, just days before the start of the far-right political summit in Madrid organized by VOX. Before and after the event, Micrófono Roto posted its first four pieces of content and Pensionista Cabreado posted seven. They also launched 38 paid ads on Facebook and Instagram that collectively reached more than 2.8 million impressions. Their common theme: attacks on political leaders such as U.S. President Donald Trump, France’s Marine Le Pen, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, and Argentina’s Javier Milei—all of whom took part in the “Patriots for Europe” summit.
For example, Micrófono Roto published several posts on Facebook and Instagram related to the summit, including a video featuring an AI-generated voice that simulated a phone call from Donald Trump to Santiago Abascal, the leader of VOX. “I’m very proud of you. No one follows instructions better than you. Well, Orbán isn’t that bad, right? We’re all counting on you this weekend. You will make Europe great again,” could be heard in the post.
On both pages, those initial posts had very little impact or reach and only began to go viral after being promoted through paid advertisements. These were three posts from February 2025, the same month that the Micrófono Roto account was created, coinciding with the “Patriots for Europe” summit held in Madrid on the 7th and 8th of that month. In those early days, the Micrófono Roto profile also ran a paid collaboration with an influencer to promote the account.
DANA, sabotage, and other coincidences
After a brief period of silence, Pensionista Cabreado posted on Facebook and Instagram for the last time on February 18, 2025. That day, it published three different posts attacking various Popular Party figures in Andalusia—each amplified through ads that generated at least 2 million impressions.
While Pensionista Cabreado stopped publishing original content at that point, its accounts were used again in April for a four-day ad campaign linking right-wing leaders to Trump’s tariffs.
Micrófono Roto, meanwhile, remained inactive from February 11 until April, when it resurfaced to launch a campaign demanding the resignation of Valencian president Carlos Mazón (PP) over his handling of the DANA storm. The campaign included around one hundred ads and ran for nearly two weeks, both in Spanish and Valencian. It appeared at least 11.6 million times, but only in ad format—there were no public posts about it on Micrófono Roto’s profile.
Micrófono Roto’s most popular content came on May 5 and 7, one week after the nationwide blackout in Spain and the day after massive delays on the AVE train network, which Spanish Transport Minister Óscar Puente attributed to “sabotage.” In those posts, PP leaders were accused of sabotaging the electrical system and railway network.
Some of the content appeared to be AI-generated, but the most viewed post—with over 300,000 views—was a compilation of videos showing PP figures calling for public mobilization against the government. These clips were overlaid with footage of overcrowded train stations and darkened streets. Many included the phrase “those who can, should,” referencing a statement made by former Prime Minister José María Aznar in November 2023.
On May 7, the account published two more posts on the same topic. “The right is sabotaging Spain. In recent years, the right has denied the legitimacy of our government and called for its downfall. The right is coordinating sabotage,” the post reads. That was the last day the account published any content to date.
This campaign was also promoted through paid ads: Micrófono Roto ran 13 ads over four days, reaching around 1.2 million impressions with direct accusations of sabotage against the Popular Party. The campaign cost Micrófono Roto over €24,000. That means that, with this single campaign alone, Micrófono Roto became the fifth-largest advertiser on Meta in Spain over the past 30 days—spending more than eight times the combined total of the national PP and PSOE profiles during the same period.
An international network?
The reason we know that these two Spanish websites are connected to the ones exposed in Poland for alleged electoral interference begins with a small technical detail: a Polish researcher alerted us that the Polish websites had the same favicon as Micrófono Roto. The favicon is the small icon that appears in the browser tab when you're on a website. All three sites use Micrófono Roto’s logo, and the image URL is identical. We also found that all the websites use the same design template.
According to the file name, everything suggests that the image was sent via the Signal messaging app, and that the person who uploaded it received it on February 4, 2025—two days before Micrófono Roto and Pensionista Cabreado were simultaneously created. These two sites not only share the same editorial line but also the exact same website template and a favicon that originated from a file sent via Signal.
Micrófono Roto and Pensionista Cabreado also share another distinctive detail. According to Meta’s transparency page, their Instagram accounts are managed by one user in Spain and another in the United Arab Emirates—just like the Polish accounts, which until the scandal broke, were managed by one administrator in Poland and another in the UAE.
Both Micrófono Roto and Pensionista Cabreado list postal addresses and phone numbers on their websites. However, calls to both numbers go straight to voicemail, and neither is linked to a WhatsApp account. Although the listed addresses include real streets and numbers, other details—such as block or apartment numbers—do not match the actual layout of the buildings. When visiting Micrófono Roto’s address in Madrid, that door number does not exist, and at the address of Pensionista Cabreado in Guadalajara, the residents told us they had never heard of the website and confirmed it was a private residence. We also sent inquiries to the public email addresses listed, but have not received any response.
In this research Maldita.es has collaborated with an international team coordinated by the Polish verifier Demagog and including Jakub Kubś, Givi Gigitashvili (Atlantic Council - Digital Forensic Research Lab), Saman Nazari (Alliance4Europe), Kamila Koronska (UvA), Peter Benzoni (German Marshal Fund and Alliance for Securing Democracy), Maria Voltsichina (Debunk.org) and Jesse Van Noort.