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You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Catalan. (February 2021) Click [show] for important translation instructions. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Catalan Wikipedia article at [[:ca:Cas I3 Ventures]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|ca|Cas I3 Ventures}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

The I3 Ventures case, also known as Barçagate or Bartogate,^[1] was an alleged defamation campaign of FC Barcelona on social media uncovered on 17 February 2020 by journalists Adrià Soldevila and Sergi Escudero of the program Què T'hi Jugues of Cadena SER.^[2] The alleged defamation campaign involved hiring a company called I3Ventures.sl to create states of opinion on social media, through dozens of "unofficial" accounts of the club that would be dedicated to protecting the image of Josep Maria Bartomeu (president of the club at that time) who is accused of rigging football matches for FC Barcelona and at the same time also attacking people from different areas of the Barça environment.^[3] The alleged targets of the defamation campaign included players like Lionel Messi or Gerard Piqué, former players such as Xavi, Carles Puyol and Pep Guardiola, and also local figures such as Víctor Font (pre-candidate for the presidency of the club), Joan Laporta, Jaume Roures, as well as profiles of pro-independence organizations and political figures such as Quim Torra and Carles Puigdemont, Òmnium Cultural, the Assemblea Nacional Catalana, and the Democratic Tsunami.^[4]

Initially, Barça's board of directors denied hiring I3 Ventures for any social media campaigns aimed at enhancing the board's image or targeting other profiles.^[5] On the day the case was published, club president Bartomeu announced the termination of the contract with I3 Ventures. He acknowledged that the contract, in place since 2017, was intended to monitor information published about the club on social media.^[6][7][8]

On 1 March 2021, Catalan police raided club's offices in a search and seizure operation; in addition, Bartomeu, his adviser Jaume Masferrer, CEO Oscar Grau and head of legal services Roman Gomez Bonti were arrested.^[9] Bartomeu admitted that he hired I3 Ventures to improve Barcelona's image on social media, but denied that he intended to damage the reputation of individuals. The social media company had earned 980,000 euro for the campaign.^[10] On the same day, FC Barcelona had released a statement in which they declared that the information and documentation requested by the judicial police force related only to the case of "contacting of monitoring services on social networks".^[11]

• Negreira case