Social media platforms are failing to eradicate false information in Spanish. Lawmakers last year urged the CEOs of major tech companies to do more to combat disinformation from spreading in Spanish.
Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube, among others, were warned that inaccurate information on key issues such as vaccines and the presidential election was proliferating on their platforms.
But more than a year later after the warning, advocates say the social media platforms are continuing to fall short of eradicating disinformation in Spanish and other non-English languages.
With the midterm elections approaching, advocates are worried about the proliferation of false information being made widely available to Spanish-speaking voters.
Latino voters make up a significant part of the electorate, constituting the second lagging voting block in the 2020 presidential election.
The failure to eradicate misinformation in Spanish from social media platforms amounts to aiding and abetting disenfranchisement, said Mariana Ruiz Firmat of the advocacy group Color of Change.
Advocates said that social media companies’ nonchalant approach, turning their heads away from the threat, shows how little they value protecting voters who do not speak English.
Many voters take to these platforms, both English and non-English speaking, in order to gain crucial access to information about voting.
Experts say misinformation narratives in Spanish often mirror those seen in English, falling into the two main categories: politics, or health and vaccines.
The most urgent narrative being tracked by researchers is what is being called “the big lie” – the baseless, and continuously disproven, the false theory that Joe Biden did not win the 2020 election legitimately.
That claim has become widely believed on the right. An astonishing 70 percent of Republican voters back the “stolen” election theory, according to a recent study. And it is continuing to spread on social media, in English and Spanish, preemptively creating doubt about the legitimacy of the midterm vote and alarming experts.
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