MIAMI — False claims on WhatsApp and Telegram that monkeypox isn’t a real virus. Russian war propaganda reaching from Latin America to Hispanic voters in the U.S. Unfounded assertions that the FBI’s raid of Mar-a-Lago was ordered up directly by President Joe Biden.
Two years after controversy erupted over the influence Spanish-language disinformation had on U.S. elections, the problem persists on social media channels and in mass media.
Tech companies and the federal government say they are trying to address the issue as yet another election season gets closer. But they acknowledge that they’re wading through a flood of information even as they are urged to do more to regulate inaccurate and manipulated Spanish-language content — which some lawmakers and advocates say continues to be under-regulated on social and mass media.
