Latino voters consuming Spanish-language news on social media may be more likely to fall for election lies, according to UC San Diego researchers.
It’s a vulnerability that could partially explain why a majority of Latino men voted for President-elect Donald Trump last month. Trump garnered 55% of the vote from Hispanic men, according to NBC News exit polls.
Few voters escaped the onslaught of disinformation online this election season.
The news and information rating website NewsGuard identified about 100 election lies circulated online between September and mid-November.
But those who got their information from Spanish-language news on social media were subjected to more election lies, the research found. A key reason is that algorithms designed to detect disinformation are weaker for stories in Spanish.
UC San Diego researchers recently studied the phenomenon within the framework of the 2022 midterm election. They found that Latinos who followed news on Spanish-language social media were more likely to believe false political narratives than Latinos consuming information in English.
"Having that medium of Spanish, especially for recent Latino immigrants, feels like it's a more trustworthy source," said lead researcher Marisa Abrajano, who is also a political scientist. "A lot of the way that we get news and information is through our networks, a friend or a family member. And so I think that can potentially play a role into why (Latino voters are) more likely to believe in these misinformation stories."
She added that candidates know this. Disinformation claiming Venezuelan authoritarian leader Nicolas Maduro’s political party supported Democrats and alleging Vice President Kamala Harris is a communist made the rounds on social media in Spanish this election.
"And this potentially resonated with voters, and so helped to motivate them to not support (Harris) or the Democratic party more broadly speaking," Abrajano said.
Initiatives, such as Factchequeado, have emerged to help Latino voters recognize election-related falsehoods.
"We provide quality journalism, accurate information and tools to Latino and Hispanic communities to empower them against disinformation in their native language in order to promote informed decision-making and increase platform accountability," the Factchequeado website reads.
