Tanzina Vega: We've been talking about concerns over mis- and disinformation in the run-up to next week's presidential election and as part of our ongoing series about Latino voters called A Votar, we wanted to understand how false information has been spreading among this population in 2020. It turns out that Latino voters, especially in battleground states like Florida, have been seeing a wave of mis- and disinformation recently, everything from unproven allegations of voter fraud to outlandish conspiracy theories tied to QAnon.
It's popping up in traditional media outlets like newspapers, local television, and radio programs, but it's even more rampant on social media platforms like WhatsApp. Here to talk to us about all that is Daniel Acosta Ramos, an investigative researcher at First Draft, a nonprofit that fights mis- and disinformation online. Daniel, thanks for joining me.
Daniel Acosta Ramos: Thank you for having me.
Tanzina: What are the biggest messages that we're seeing that are spreading within the Latino community in terms of mis- and disinformation, are there certain themes?
Daniel: We have three messages that are spreading in the form of mis- and disinformation. We have a campaign using the threat against socialism and communism. You're seeing common traps that are misleading in contexts. In messaging, we have other initiatives that are meant to discredit vote-by-mail initiatives affecting lots of Latinx communities. Last but not least, we have also promotion of racial tension between the Latinx and the Black community.
Those are the three themes that we have seen the most affecting the Latino community while we're monitoring it.
Tanzina: Daniel, who is spreading these messages?
Daniel: That's a really good question because misinformation in social media blurs a lot of lines. We see how misinformation gets created within an anonymous web that in the Latino community is mostly WhatsApp groups. We see that misinformation is created through that anonymous web and close network spaces, and then goes to conspiracy communities and social media, and then ends up sometimes in our professional media.
Mis- and disinformation is not just spread by bad actors, people who are in this game with the sole purpose of spreading this info. It's sadly also spread by regular people, just like you and me that receive a message and think it's worrisome and then share it with other people.
Tanzina: Are there specific demographics within the Latino population that are more susceptible to this type of information? There's been some reporting that I found slightly problematic that talks about how Latinos are obsessed with demonizing Black Lives Matter and I think, well, are they or is it a question of receiving false information and being more susceptible to those messages?
Daniel: I will say, and this demographic is not exclusive to the Latinx community, but older people are more prompt to share misinformation the way they get information through Facebook to WhatsApp, and then share it to friends and family. People let's say over 55, it's more susceptible to spread misinformation. Even though it's not unique to the Hispanic or Latino community, we see it a lot within that community, in particular, that older people share more misinformation in their Facebook profiles, in their Facebook groups, in their Twitter handles. It is worrisome that we have more people vulnerable.
Tanzina: What about language? What role does language play in both tracking this type of misinformation as well as spreading this type of misinformation?
Daniel: Well, I'll tell you, when we started monitoring Latinx communities we were expecting a lot of misinformation in Spanish, but after being monitoring for a while, we can say that most of the misinformation that we actually see is in English and maybe that has to do with the fact that most Latinos actually speak English in this country and that Spanish is meant to maybe older populations.
That might be an answer, but that's usually the way it goes. Language also plays a part on how platforms fight against misinformation. We have seen in cases of banned content that YouTube and Facebook usually do a good job when it comes to banning content that is in English, but it is not that effective.
Tanzina: Is there anything that's being done now that this is essentially national news? This is something that's been reported on for a couple of weeks now. Is there anything that's being done, Daniel, to prevent it?
Daniel: If we compare it with 2016, the platforms are way more aggressive. They are banning content, they are [unintelligible 00:05:23] and content which is pretty important, but there's a lot of stuff to be done still. We have misinformation agents that are sharing problematic content in Facebook groups, they're sharing content in WhatsApp groups, that are sharing content in Twitter, that are sharing content in podcasts. They're sharing content in radio shows.
Misinformation is not going away and several institutions have to do their part. Governments have to do the part, legislatures have to do their part, civil society and nonprofits like First Draft are working to empower people to fight against misinformation.
Tanzina: What about Facebook and the social media platforms themselves, like WhatsApp? We're talking a lot about their role in trying to manage this type of misinformation.
Daniel: Absolutely, you just feel short when you see the gigantic wave of misinformation that our community it's getting. The platforms need to do more, all of them from Facebook-- We have to remember Facebook is this giant company that not only owns Facebook but Instagram and WhatsApp, which is particularly problematic in the spread of misinformation and we have seen some measures, but I feel they're timid, they're small if you compare to the problem.
Tanzina: Daniel Acosta Ramos is an investigative researcher at the nonprofit First Draft. Daniel, thanks for joining me.
Daniel: Always the pleasure.
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