The Spanish-language misinformation crisis

Spanish-language misinformation on social media platforms is flourishing, even as tech companies add more moderators, adopt stricter content rules, add context labels and block offending accounts.

Why it matters: Latinos are increasingly turning to social media for news during the pandemic — including important elections where Spanish-language misinformation sometimes sits unchallenged, posing threats to health and democracies.

Driving the news: In light of misinformation that has been spread about COVID-19, vaccinations and the 2020 election, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus requested meetings with leaders of Meta, TikTok, YouTube and Twitter last month to discuss what steps platforms are taking.

The intrigue: An analysis of the 2020 election by the Latino research firm Equis, reviewed by Axios, found that YouTube played a significant role in convincing some Latino voters to support former President Donald Trump in higher percentages than expected by carefully targeting them.

https://www.axios.com/social-media-misinformation-latinos-2c3574d4-d437-402c-8606-94c2f6332abf.html