Study finds no coordinated anti-Argentina campaign on social media during World Cup

A political‑analytics lab called Inteligencia Analítica examined 587,907 posts from 325,627 accounts that together generated more than 552 million impressions during the FIFA World Cup. The researchers found no evidence of a deliberate, coordinated operation or bot farms targeting Argentina. While hostility toward the Argentine team was described as "real, intense and massive," the conversation was dispersed and organic: over half of the accounts were older than 7.4 years, only 0.29 % were created after the tournament began, and 81 % had at least three years of activity. Most users posted a single comment and no small group repeatedly pushed the same content, a pattern typical of orchestrated campaigns.

The study gained relevance after Argentine President Javier Milei claimed a media offensive against his country, accusing the governments of Brazil's Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Mexico's Claudia Sheinbaum of supporting it. The analysis shows the backlash was driven by Argentine users themselves and by a broad, unstructured global discussion, not by a hidden coordinated effort.