Imagine coming across a TikTok post calling you to protest for better public schools. You scan a QR code to get more information, and find yourself in a private chat where the instructions are not about education or political organising, but about looting.
This was the picture that emerged in Barcelona on October 24. Around 20 TikTok accounts linked to the anonymous Blocus platform had promoted gatherings across Spain, inviting young people to mobilise.
The public accounts echoed the French student movement and called for similar action in Plaça Catalunya, right next to the city’s housing rights encampment. Yet no evidence links the two movements – a fact that Barcelona’s mayor Jaume Collboni has explicitly acknowledged.
