The spread of disinformation and fake news has long been a global problem, but its influence has become particularly noticeable in U.S. and Latin American elections. As already referenced here by the Latino Observatory, historically, the manipulation of truth, as discussed by historians such as Marc Bloch and Eric Hobsbawm, has always been present in the construction of political and social narratives. However, with the rise of social networks and digital technologies, the impact of disinformation has reached new dimensions, significantly affecting electoral processes. Examples are the 2016 elections in the United States and the 2018 elections in Brazil.

In the perspective of the 2016 U.S. elections, as mentioned in the Latino Observatory analysis, a study by Ohio State University indicated that fake news played a crucial role in decreasing support for Hillary Clinton, directly influencing voter choice. In turn, the Brazilian population fiercely faced the problem of disinformation in the election of Jair Bolsonaro in 2018, during which strategies used in Donald Trump's campaign were mirrored by the electorate of the Brazilian candidate. The phenomenon of fake news is worrisome because as soon as it manipulates public perception, it shakes people's confidence in democratic institutions in their integrity and legitimacy.

From the past context, it is evident that, as the United States prepares for new elections, it is crucial to intensify discussions about the measures adopted to verify the veracity of news and combat disinformation, aiming to protect democracy. Reflection on the historical impact of fake news will lead to an analysis of the fact-checking practices that are currently being implemented, essential to mitigate the power of influence of these false narratives in the electoral process; in particular, the Factchequeado and El Detector platforms, which are able to access Latino communities in the United States.

The Role of Fact-Checking

Rafael Olavarría, a member of the Factchequeado project, exemplifies the daily fight against disinformation in Spanish in the United States. In one recent example, Olavarría repeatedly corrected a false claim that the U.S. was secretly bringing 320,000 unauthorized immigrants into the country, a distortion of the federal "humanitarian parole" program. Despite corrections made by several reliable sources, including the Associated Press, politicians like Senator Ted Cruz have continued to repeat the false narrative. Still, when asked by Capital & Main about Cruz's publication of disinformation, a spokesperson for his office declined to comment and instead resorted to "X" to attack the reporter as biased.

Fact-checkers fighting Spanish-language misinformation and subject matter experts spoke to Capital & Main about the problem of viral misinformation. The scenario they describe is full of a lot of misinformation and few people trying to clarify the facts, like paddling against a wild tide. Carlos Chirino, supervisor of a 10-person team at El Detector, a fact-checking project at Univision, describes it as "an unequal struggle”. Getting accurate information into the hands of Spanish-speakers among the 36.2 million eligible Latino voters in the U.S. will only become more important in the months leading up to November's presidential election, the team alleges. 

Univision launched El Detector in 2015 and its work has changed as Spanish-language misinformation has changed, according to Chirinos. In the past five years or so, content aimed at Latino communities in the U.S. has increasingly originated from Spanish-speaking countries such as Venezuela, Colombia or Peru, he noted. "We try to do preemptive strikes," the supervisor said, describing that this involves identifying disinformation when it originates in other countries and then preparing fact-checking materials aimed at the U.S. public. Chirinos' 10-person team stepped up efforts to multiply its fact-checking capabilities in late April, starting with the training of Univision reporters in cities with large Spanish-speaking populations, such as Houston, Los Angeles, Miami and Chicago. The idea is for local reporters to identify viral misinformation in their areas and broadcast the fact-check.

Still in the challenge that fact-checking organizations face the challenge of reacting quickly to false information that spreads quickly, especially on platforms that prioritize controversial content, Factchequeado has developed partnerships with more than 70 media and community organizations. The collaboration is also aimed at the Latino community in the United States and includes training local journalists in major U.S. cities to identify and correct false information in real time. AlDía, the Spanish version of the Dallas Morning News, is one of more than 70 partners across the country, which means it uses the work of Factchequeado to correct viral fake news about immigration and elections. As one of three on the Al Día team, Rafael Carballo faces the challenge of serving more than 67,000 primarily Spanish-speaking households in Dallas County.  

"We don't have enough staff to anticipate [viral misinformation] before it happens”, Carballo said. "We are working reactively”, confessed the editor. "Our hands are tied."

Challenges and Limitations

While initiatives such as Factchequeado and El Detector represent important steps in the fight against disinformation, they face significant obstacles. Social media platforms such as TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram often fail to act proactively or systematically to remove false content, despite reports and the work of fact-checking teams. To put pressure on such platforms, the National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) teamed up with civil rights, anti-extremism, and Latino organizations to launch a project to hold social media platforms accountable in 2021. That initiative, called  the Spanish Disinformation Coalition, came about after Facebook failed to remove election disinformation and militia posts inciting violence in Spanish, despite the company's announcement in 2020 that it would do so.   

Still, little has been achieved, said Daiquiri Ryan Mercado, a strategic legal counsel and policy adviser to the National Hispanic Media Coalition. They have "very little commercial incentive" to do so, he said. That prompted NHMC and other groups to reach out to officials at the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission, but the discussions were not productive either, Mercado reported.

Impact on Elections

With the upcoming U.S. elections approaching, concern about the impact of misinformation on Latino communities is growing. Misinformation directed at these voters can not only distort their perception of candidates and issues, but also discourage voter turnout. As Gabriel R. Sánchez has noted, misinformation about voter fraud can lead Latino voters to question the effectiveness of voting, undermining democratic participation.

While Olavarría and his team continue to do everything they can to be where the Latino community is, the battle against misinformation is uphill and ongoing. The importance of promoting critical thinking and digital literacy among Latino voters is vital to mitigate the effects of this disinformation, and those who are already able to make critical analyses of what they read also need to engage in the fight against fake news by flagging it on the networks and bringing the context, the truth of the information, to the agenda.