Credit: (Juan Rosa)

Latino communities in New Jersey and around the country are a common target of misinformation, in large part due to how they get their news and other media.

Spanish speakers are more likely to see misinformation than English speakers because there is little content moderation in Spanish on social media platforms including Facebook and WhatsApp, which are used often by Latino communities. WhatsApp, which is a popular way to communicate with family and friends in other countries, uses an encrypted network that doesn’t allow for any content moderation.

Ahead of the 2024 presidential election, advocacy groups are working to raise awareness about the dangers of misinformation and tools people can use to fact-check what they read online. Telemundo’s Tverifica is a WhatsApp channel where reporters can communicate directly with voters. Members of the text channel can send the team story ideas, as well as images and documents they want to have verified. Univision has a similar fact-checking platform called el Detector.

Factchequeado is another Spanish-language fact-checking site that partners with more than 100 media and community organizations who use its content for free. The site has a WhatsApp tip line where users can request fact-checks of content they see online, including ads and offers that could be scams.

A level of skepticism

Latino communities see a lot of misinformation but are skeptical of what they see, according to a poll of Latino adults conducted by the Digital Democracy Institute of the Americas and YouGov in the spring. These groups tend to critically evaluate information while remaining distrustful of online content in general, according to the poll. The most widely seen false claims are most likely to be rejected, probably because they have been fact-checked at higher rates, according to the institute.

For example, the false claim that “Trump won in 2020” is one of the most widely rejected claims. One-third of Latinos surveyed said they believe that former President Donald Trump won in 2020, according to the report. This tracks with the percentage of American adults who wrongly believe that Trump won.

In comparison, about half of the people surveyed who said they have read or heard that corporations are “all-powerful” in American politics and that mainstream media outlets censor the truth said they believe those reports.

Those with high levels of political interest and education show high levels of being able to distinguish between true and false content, according to the poll. Latino Republicans, extreme partisans and those who consume Spanish-language media are less able to differentiate between true and false content compared to the average survey respondent.

Juan Rosa, national director of civic engagement at NALEO Educational Fund, said his organization is focused on informing and motivating Latinos in the lead-up to the election. NALEO has a bilingual hotline that people can call with questions about voting from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. every weekday.

The group also has a campaign called “Defiende La Verdad,” or Defend the Truth, which focuses on countering what they call MDM — misinformation, disinformation and malinformation — that is being targeted at Latino communities. Rosa spoke with NJ Spotlight News about the initiative in a Q&A that has been lightly edited.

NJ Spotlight News: If people are consuming Spanish media, are they at a higher risk for seeing misinformation?

Juan Rosa: There are several factors that make the community at risk of being exposed to MDM. The community is online, so they’re looking at news on YouTube, Facebook. When you compound the fact that the community is online and that it relies on information from online sources, and the fact that these platforms are lagging in the capacity to monitor for content in languages other than English, then that’s a risk factor. The community relies on the use of things like WhatsApp, so encrypted platforms that don’t allow for monitoring.

NJSN: What’s the research on the prevalence of misinformation targeted at Latino communities?

JR: It’s pretty illuminating because research that’s very recent shows Latinos are a target of MDM narratives but they don’t necessarily believe [them]. The reason we at NALEO are engaged in this work of fighting misinformation is because we already know that our community faces a gap in information. We are really focused on working with low-propensity voters, voters that don’t vote every election, voters that are new to the process. That information gap is even more pernicious among those voters. We know that in the community there is not only an information gap, but in many places also an invitation gap.

NJSN: I understand from the existing research that while these communities are likely to see more MDM, it’s not like they’re believing it at higher rates. If someone is seeing misinformation in their WhatsApp messages or on their Facebook feed, what should they do to respond and check?

JR: These tools are available. Univision and Telemundo have fact-checking tools that their viewers can use. Univision has el Detector, or the detector, and Telemundo has TVerifica, which is like TV verify. People can see something, go to that tool and they can ask them on WhatsApp and corroborate the veracity. But we need to popularize those. We need to make sure that people know they exist, know how to use [them] and what to use [them] for.

NJSN: Is there anything else you want to add?

JR: The next big step for us in the field is we have to do a lot of media literacy education, plus a lot of making sure people know about the fact-checking tools. So the next big thing for us is really trying to decipher what works in our community.