Originally published by NBCU Academy.

Hours after former President Donald Trump dodged a bullet last month, a myriad of misleading statements and conspiratorial narratives emerged online. Some falsely argued that “globalists” or the “deep state” were behind the attempted assassination at a Pennsylvania rally. Others blamed the Democratic Party at large. A manipulated cartoon image of the former president in a coffin suggested that “The Simpsons” had predicted the event. 

Though many of these rumors originated in English, they were quickly translated and disseminated in Spanish across social media. To mitigate its spread, Factchequeado, a fact-checking platform in the U.S. and several Latin American cities, created explainers debunking unverified information to distribute among its 60 Spanish-language news partners across the country.

“Latinos living in the U.S. who are not bilingual or proficient in English are more exposed to misinformation,” said Laura Zommer, co-founder and CEO of Factchequeado. “There’s just less available information in that language.”

For decades, Spanish-language news broadcasters played a crucial role in informing Latino communities in the U.S. But today, nearly half of Latino media consumers get their news on social platforms such as YouTube, WhatsApp and TikTok, according to a recent Pew Research Center study. With so much exposure to misinformation on social media, especially in the lead-up to U.S. elections, experts like Zommer worry voters could be swayed or deterred from heading to the polls.

“There are some people or some organizations or some groups trying to make you feel that this [election] is too messy for you,” Zommer said, referring to U.S. Latinos. “We don’t want that.”

Latinos will be a decisive electorate come November, with a voting population of over 36 million. In the past four years, the Latino vote has become increasingly important for political hopefuls, especially in battleground states with large Latino populations, such as Florida, Texas, Nevada and Arizona. While Latino voters have historically favored Democrats, a New York Times/Sienna College April poll found that 37% of Latinos voted for Trump in 2020, up from 28% in 2016; the same poll found that 39% of Latinos plan to vote for Trump in November. However, this increase in Republican support doesn’t translate to all regions and races — in the 2022 midterms, Latinos helped Democrats win several congressional seats that many expected Republicans to win. 

With many Spanish-speaking Latinos being bombarded with misinformation, the onus has been on nonprofits like Factchequeado, as well as hyperlocal media and larger WhatsApp initiatives, to set the record straight. But as November approaches and election news ramps up, will these outlets be able to keep up?

Latino audiences at a glance

More than 62 million Latinos live in the United States, nearly a fifth of the country’s population. Latinos also make up 14.3% of all eligible voters (as of 2022), more than double the number in 2000. 

While the share of Latinos who predominantly speak Spanish has been dwindling with each generation, a new study by the Digital Democracy Institute of the Americas (DDIA) revealed that, compared to their English-dominant counterparts, this group is less inclined to dismiss false or misleading claims they encounter. DDIA founder and executive director Roberta Braga said there’s no unique factor that makes Latinos more vulnerable to misinformation than other racial demographics in the U.S. — except that there are fewer fact-checking resources in Spanish. 

“There’s nothing inherent about our communities that makes us victims or gullible,” said Braga, “Latino communities have historically been very underserved.” 

University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public recently found that even though social media platforms have policies that address election misinformation and rumors, there’s a notable discrepancy between how these policies are implemented in English compared to how they are implemented in Spanish. For instance, a query such as “election fraud” in English might trigger on Facebook and TikTok an action that points users toward reliable information, whereas the same query in Spanish will not.

“The effects come down to Spanish speakers slipping through the cracks of a platform’s intended moderation,” said Nina Lutz, a graduate student researcher who conducted the study. 

“It represents an inequity in their experience.” 

Addressing misinfo in Spanish-language news

With Spanish-language communities underserved and strapped for resources, hyperlocal and community-based organizations have stepped in to address blind spots in information-gathering and distribution. One of the most successful initiatives started as a group chat during the pandemic and now serves thousands of people living in cities between the American Southwest and Mexico.

When Arizona-based journalist Maritza Félix began receiving an onslaught of unreliable information about Covid from her mother in 2020, she created Conecta Arizona on WhatsApp to counter the misinformation. Conecta Arizona has since grown into a Spanish-language news service in Arizona and the northern Mexican state of Sonora, reaching nearly 100,000 people daily through its radio, newsletters and other social media products. If it’s a busy news day, Conecta Arizona might receive between 40 to 60 fact-checking requests — a number that balloons during election season, particularly among rural Arizona audiences. 

“We are weaving networks that make us much stronger,” said Félix. “Independent but collaborative journalism is what is closing these gaps.”

Documented in New York and Enlace Latino in North Carolina have also developed targeted community engagement strategies to keep audiences informed — and they work with Factchequeado, which functions as a fact-checking wire service, to get the word out. Nicolás Ríos, Documented’s audience and community director, said it’s important to provide news and information that feel actionable to these communities. Through a twice-a-week newsletter and a WhatsApp channel, Ríos’ team serves immigrants and asylum-seekers in the New York City area. “We are inoculating people against misinformation,” he said. 

As North Carolina’s first nonprofit Spanish-language newsroom, Enlace Latino distributes news and information to 18,000 people across four newsletters, a podcast and two private WhatsApp groups — one specifically created to serve the state’s agricultural workers. Co-founder and managing editor Walter Gómez said much of the misleading information Enlace Latino attempts to counter stems from legislation that targets the community, not just bad actors on the internet. For instance, a new North Carolina bill, which would require local law enforcement to collaborate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to determine who is living in the country unlawfully, might generate unfounded rumors and incite panic. 

“The most harmful effect of misinformation is that it creates a climate of fear and seems to be hateful towards a certain community,” said Gómez. Part of Enlace Latino’s role is to mitigate fears stoked by political rhetoric and provide information that makes communities aware of their rights, he said.

Even traditional Spanish-language TV media is fighting misinformation where it happens most — online. In 2020, Telemundo launched TVerifica, a fact-checking service on WhatsApp. By texting a number, people can send in information they would like to verify — from grocery store scams to confusing electoral information.

TVerifica receives dozens of inquiries daily, some of which are impossible to verify. However, Telemundo investigative and data reporter Ronny Rojas, who spearheads the initiative, said they try to utilize all of the channels that Telemundo operates — from radio to TV to digital media — to point people to verified information.

While collaboration among Spanish-language newsrooms is key to reaching a large swath of the Spanish-speaking public, Gómez said Enlace Latino wants to work more closely with large, English-language newsrooms, too, so the general public understands what Spanish-language communities are facing.

“It’s very important to have these collaborations with Anglo media because their impact is different, and so is their audience,” he said. 

Additional challenges ahead

According to Zommer, tackling misinformation is especially challenging in Spanish-speaking Latino communities because they are a diversified group with varied opinions and concerns. While most U.S. Latinos have familial and ancestral ties to Mexico, Puerto Rico and El Salvador, the fastest-growing groups currently are from Venezuela, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic. 

“[Latinos] see the prism of policy and politics through the prism of policy and politics of their country of origin,” said Evelyn Pérez-Verdía, chief of strategy for We are Más, a multilingual communications agency based in Florida.

Artificial intelligence poses another challenge. The rise of manipulated content is making it harder for audiences to discern whether multimedia content shared across platforms is reliable. Rojas and Félix said audiences are coming across more manipulated content than in 2020 — content that is often more elaborate and easier to believe.

Félix said there’s also an “emotional layer” to misinformation that can’t be overlooked. “It generates these exalted spirits, which makes our work a little more difficult because we can verify data, but we can’t tap into the emotion behind someone’s opinion,” she said.

As November approaches, new misleading narratives are likely to emerge. For instance, rumors about “open borders,” a rise in crime due to immigration and an “invasion” of migrants are among the latest false narratives taking hold in these communities. Earlier this year, an unverified user on X falsely claimed that hundreds of thousands of noncitizens had registered to vote in the U.S. elections, which garnered hundreds of millions of impressions. 

For Zommer and her team, the best way to address rumors and unreliable information is providing simple and clear explanations to their audience about the positions of candidates on the ballot, the logistics of the voting process and why it’s important to show up to the polls come November.

“We want all Latinos to feel empowered to show up to vote because they understand what is happening,” she said.