Late last year, Scarlett Lanzas, while chatting with neighbors at the community pool in Miami, heard a false rumor about the 2024 presidential election. This incident highlighted the importance of Lanzas' work as a bilingual information navigator, part of a pilotproject by Brown University's Information Futures Lab, which aims to correct rumors with factual information in diaspora communities in Florida.

The initiative was reported by NPR that Lanzas, in addition to her role as a manager of a nonprofit, responded to a weekly survey and referred concerns from her network to the research team, which included the fact-checking website Factchequeado and the communication agency We Are Más. The team would then send factual posts via WhatsApp to be shared easily.

The spread of the rumor about the presidential election originated from a video on social media, where an Alexa device appeared to claim that the election would not take place, popularized by Alex Jones. The research team, upon identifying this rumor, created messages to inform that the election was scheduled for November 5 and warn of false rumors.

Lanzas, a Nicaraguan immigrant, was not surprised by the belief of some immigrants in the rumor, given the precedents in their countries of origin. She forwarded the correct information to her neighbor via WhatsApp, showing the effectiveness of the project.

The pilot project revealed that less than 20% of the more than 500 questions received were about rumors, most involved daily necessities and difficulties accessing accurate information, especially in Spanish. The initiative highlighted the lack of access to quality information in some immigrant communities, exacerbated by language and literacy barriers.

At the end of the pilot, 78% of information navigators reported that the posts provided were more culturally appropriate than other available sources, helping with communication with the community. Friedhoff, co-director of the Information Futures Lab, is exploring expanding the use of information browsers and developing a toolkit to help community organizations recruit browsers.

For Scarlett Lanzas, her experience as an information navigator inspires new approaches in her organization's work with Miami's Latino community, emphasizing the importance of supporting communities with access to accurate information.