US-based Spanish-language disinformation comes under increased scrutiny

US lawmakers sent letters to Signal, Telegram and WhatsApp last month calling on them to do more to crack down on Spanish-language disinformation in the US. The three platforms have been given until 13 June 2022 to respond to a list of detailed questions related to content moderation and tracking.

The development came less than two months after the chairs of the US Foreign Relations Committee issued a joint statement with their Spanish counterparts accusing Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, WhatsApp, and Telegram of prioritizing the moderation of English-language content over Spanish. “These platforms have repeatedly prioritized English-language content moderation, failing to invest sufficient resources into addressing equally harmful Spanish-language dis/misinformation,” reads the government press release.

The statement also expressed concern over the spread of Spanish-language disinformation, both within Spain and the US, but also across Latin America and the Caribbean.

The US and Spanish governments are not the only entities to have recently flagged the international spread of Spanish-language disinformation. Last month, the founders of two prominent fact checking outlets — Laura Zommer of Chequeado in Argentina and Clara Jiménez Cruz of Maldita.es in Spain — launched Factchequeado. The site will be dedicated to debunking Spanish-language disinformation in the US.

In an interview with Harvard University’s Nieman Foundation, the pair said the idea for Factchequeado came after they saw an increase in Spanish-language content from the US appearing in their fact checks. “One of our approaches here is thinking if we manage [to get] platforms and the companies to put attention into Spanish-language misinformation in the U.S., that is going to benefit our regions in the long term,” Zommer added.

Our analysis

Spanish-language content that is misleading or incorrect (misinformation) as well as content that is intentionally deceptive or harmful (disinformation) does spread across borders with ease. However, while material flows north-south and south-north, it tends to be Spanish-language content created in the US which has the greatest reach.

COVID-19 conspiracy theories are one of the most common Spanish-language topics that start in the US and spread to the rest of Latin America. This content ranges from misinformation about US court rulings and medical studies to grandiose claims of mass genocide and population tracking by US elites.

Disinformation related to US domestic politics and foriegn relations is also commonplace. Content shared in Latin America is often hostile to the Biden administration and right-wing in nature. It tends to pool around major developments, such as the US election or the country’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Some US content arriving in the region is repackaged to fit domestic politics. In Brazil and Peru, claims of secretive pedofile rings, similar to those shared by the US-based group QAnon, are used to target local politicians. Meanwhile, US companies are accused of undermining gender norms and promoting sexual deviency through underhand marketing.

Different groups are likely responsible for spreading US-sourced content. Far-right political movements, especially in Brazil, have close ties with both mainstream and fringe groupings in the US. This is an important source of some of the more extremist material shared in the country.

Another source, especially for US domestic affairs disinformation, is the Latino diaspora. Consequently, countries with large expatriate populations in the US, especially Colombia, Mexico, and Venezuela, see much more US disinformation than their counterparts in Argentina, Bolivia and Chile.

Special interest groups are also responsible. Prominent examples include Argentina’s Médicos por la Verdad and Bolivia’s Acción Humanista Revolucionario, both of which are anti-vax networks that aggressively share disinformation from around the world.

Russia and to a lesser extent China also play a part in spreading disinformation from and about the US. This is done both openly through state-owned media channels and surreptitiously via bots, trolls, allied governments (like Nicaragua), and proxy networks.

How we can help

The US government’s crackdown on online disinformation is becoming an increasingly multinational effort. Its joint-statement with the Spanish government is likely to be the first of many and hints at increased cross-border policy coordination over the issue. The Biden administration will almost certainly find allies in Latin America where multiple governments confront coordinated disinformation campaigns.

Southern Pulse is uniquely positioned to assist and advise clients concerned about Spanish-language disinformation. Our team has already helped several companies understand and address inauthentic and malicious content in Spanish and Portuguese. Our work is aided by our extensive network of sources based in 18 Latin American countries. We offer privileged reporting in several areas of interest, including:

• Disinformation monitoring before, during and after elections.
• Disinformation matrices which identify disinformation risk by topic.
• Disinformation analysis related to extremist groups, special interest groups, and political parties.