There is a 24-year-old Venezuelan living in Iceland spreading political disinformation in Spanish to American Latinos on YouTube. It’s a viral smash.

On WhatsAppa free international messaging and calling platform, misinformation about the presidential election is accumulating in clusters.

In August, a group of Republican Cubans from Florida showed up in Fairhill, Philadelphia, to tell more 80% Latino community through phone calls, leaflets and sidewalk confrontations: “The 2020 elections were rigged, and if you are a true Christian, you must vote for Donald Trump.”

Latino voters in Pennsylvania could play a central role in this election because both parties jockey for their support. This makes it a target for misinformation.

Although political misinformation is already vexing enough in English, these same lies and distortions can create another level of difficulty for Americans who speak Spanish.

One reason is that debunking lies on social media, already difficult to do in English, is almost impossible in Spanish, as there are many fewer Spanish-speaking moderators. When available, moderators attempt to maintain decency, remove harassing or bullying comments, and, where possible, report fake news.

Additionally, platforms like WhatsApp are encrypted, meaning messages are private, making them extremely difficult to moderate or fact-check what is being posted, as Facebook tries to do for public posts.

Additionally, some misinformation that Americans have become accustomed to may reach the ears of some Latinos in very different ways.

For example, at campaign rallies, it is not uncommon to hear former President Donald Trump say, “She (Vice President Kamala Harris) is truly Marxist. … This country is not ready for a Marxist or a communist.”

These transported labels, emblematic of the terror which pushed immigrants to flee hostile countries. left-wing regimes in Central and South America, make Harris an unpleasant choice and Democrats look like monsters, experts say.

“The emotions that white Americans may feel upon hearing these words do not come close to matching those of Latinos,” said Laura Zommer, CEO and co-founder of Factchecked. a Spanish-language fact-checking organization based in Argentina with ties to Latin American media in Philadelphia.

And, Zommer said, when some Latino immigrants or their children hear Trump’s lies about a stolen 2020 election, it doesn’t seem so far-fetched. “The Venezuelan elections were marked by fraud,” she said. “Some people are used to non-transparent elections” and may not bother to vote.

YouTube phenomenon

It’s not entirely clear why Juan Torres, the Icelandic fabulist, is talking to Latinos in America about Trump. Around 40% of Latinos in the United States, they speak Spanish at home; There are 62.5 million Latinos living in the United States, or 19% of the population.

Nour Saudiproducer of Futuro, a nonprofit news organization, said in an interview that Torres has 170,000 subscribers on YouTube.

“His channel is called ‘Venezuela News,’ but this is all about American policy,” Saudi Arabia said. “He falsely tells his Latino audience that Kamala Harris wants to abolish ICE (U.S. Immigration and customs enforcement), defund the police and confiscate Americans’ guns. I don’t know what motivates him.

Whatever the reason, such propaganda can be effective.

The Digital Democracy Institute of the Americas, a research center run by and for Latinos in the Western Hemisphere, conducted a survey of Latino adults in the United States in September to find out what types of misinformation are leaving their mark:

Thriving in Philadelphia

This misinformation flourishes among wholesalers 250,000 Latinos Living in Philadelphia is no surprise to Olga Renteria, executive director of Philatinos Radio, based in South Philadelphia. The station is a partner of Factchequeado.

“For a lot of Latinos that we talk to in Philadelphia…there are no political conversations at home at any time, and we’re trying to explain to them and dissuade them from believing the misinformation,” he said. he declared.

Many Latinos in Philadelphia simply believe what they see and hear on WhatsApp, said Jasmine Rivera, executive director of the Pennsylvania Immigration Coalition.

THE Pew Research Center found that 54% of U.S. Hispanic adults are on the platform, which is favored by immigrants as well as all users whose family lives abroad as there are no subscription fees or usage fees.

(Hispanic refers to a person with ancestors from a country whose primary language is Spanish. Latino refers to a person from anywhere in Latin America. The terms are often used interchangeably.)

“I saw the political propaganda videos on WhatsApp,” she said. “We need a better system to control what is said in Spanish. If there are things that Meta (the owner of WhatsApp) is doing to correct false Spanish information on WhatsApp, I have never been aware of them.

Script News reported that a Meta spokesperson said the company had incorporated new tools to help stop the spread of suspicious or false information, including labels and limits on forwarded messages, banning mass messaging, and providing more support for a broad network of fact-checkers.

A fight against disinformation in Fairhill

Not all misinformation is spread online.

It’s a harsh truth gleaned from the city streets, according to Charito Moralesa well-known Fairhill activist and nurse who co-founded Philly Boricuas (Puerto Ricans), a grassroots group that supports Latinos and fights election misinformation.

When a group of Cubans Republicans She traveled from Florida this summer and began “proselytizing for Trump,” as she put it, Fairhill residents were caught off guard.

“Oh, my God, they were everywhere,” Morales said. “In front of pharmacies, supermarkets, churches, everyone tells us in Spanish to vote for Trump. »

Members of the group falsely told anyone who would listen that Election Day was November 6. They wrongly claimed that first-time Pennsylvania voters No ID needed to vote. They wildly asserted that Roe v. Wade had “never existed,” having been conjured up by “demonic people” who wanted their daughters to have “abortion abominations,” Morales said.

“I had to take out the megaphones and debunk their misinformation right into the streets,” she added. “We didn’t pursue them. But we foiled them with bullets, and they left.