John: Many people use social media to document the things we most enjoyed our lives, vacations, meals, or even the latest tiktok dance bear but it can also be used to influence people who want to seek better lives often through dangerous journeys that can have tragic results.

This report was produced for the students in the global reporting program at the university of British Columbia.

♪ >> These people are celebrating making it to Europe.

The end of a long journey and they hope the beginning of a new life.

For many, the first thing they do is reach for their phones to share their life-changing news on apps like tiktok, Instagram, and Facebook.

>> People talk about it on social media like Facebook and all of that.

People are also on tiktok.

Which is what a lot of people use now.

>> This 24-year-old is an amateur soccer player who lives on the Spanish canary islands.

He saw that like these when he was living in Senegal hoping to one may make his day to Spain.

>> There are people on the journey who take video and show people that this path is fine, they are not afraid.

It is not very dangerous.

Any person can take this route.

>> What he discovered was very different.

The videos rarely show the reality of the journey in these overloaded, fairly seaworthy boats where urine and diesel fuel/around and violence is commentary when he made his decision to climb aboard, he had no idea he was embarking on what the united nations calls one of the most dangerous and deadliest migration routes in the world.

For him, it turned into a week long nightmare.

>> I was throwing up.

Everything I ate I threw up.

The last three days I did not get up from where I sat.

I slept there and spent the night there because I had a bucket that had everything in it.

I did not stand up for three days.

>> He spoke -- his boat was spotted by the Spanish coast guard and towed into to the main port on this island.

It is popular with divers but it is not a beach destination.

It is the most southwesterly of the canary islands and it is exposed to the powerful atlantic waves.

In 2025, nearly 18,000 migrants arrived on the canary islands.

Mostly from west Africa.

This island receives more people than the entire population.

She is with the red cross.

She said most to arrive here are lucky to have survived the journey.

>> When we see it on television, it might seem calm or a joy for the immigrants.

But that is not the reality.

Many people are coming on a single vote.

Many of them do not know how to swim.

If at any moment of the boat were to capsize, we would be facing a very serious problem.

>> It is estimated that last year alone more than 2000 people went missing or died in the atlantic while trying to reach Spain.

The seas are rough and boats can run out of fuel or veal off course -- veer off course.

>> We are talking about people who have been found on the coast among the five.

They drift off course and they end up in South America.

>> The videos posted on social media focus on the dream of a better life.

But they are also used to organize illegal efforts to cross borders.

In 2024, a group of migrants use Facebook to rush the border.

At a set time, thousands of people ran for the heavily guarded, barbed wire topped fence.

Many managed to force their way into Europe.

But this is a dangerous gamble.

Offer -- often they end in fatalities.

Smugglers also use social media to find customers.

A uc Berkeley law professor is an expert on migration.

She told us that smugglers have learned how to leverage these platforms many -- better than many official organizations.

>> We see the mode of transport written in arabic.

An English script.

And a dollar sign indicating how much they should expect to pay for each day.

T is far more comprehensive so in the best information governments provide.

>> She told us that smugglers are well practiced.

Then there is a smuggler who will tell you I have done this journey myself.

I am part of your community and I decided to help the community.

I will help you get a haircut to look western.

I will help you with all the transition points.

You will pay me some amount now and some amount of the end.

Take the risk.

>> He hopes for the day when desperate people are no longer facing the economic and political challenges that motivate them to take these risks.

>> We really dream of the time where this no longer exists because that would mean we have a better world and these people no longer need to come in search of a new life.

>> He knows that.

And the lure of a new life is shared on social media.

But he urges people to be aware of the dangers they face.

>> I do not advise anyone to do this.

It is hard to stop someone whose life is so tough.

>> Social media is filled with the faces of the missing.

The many posts we found online from family and friends searching for loved ones that reveal the hidden tragic realities of people who are convinced to embark on dangerous journeys only to disappear in the waters of the atlantic.

♪