Bad actors are trying to derail the US Midterm elections by spreading shocking conspiracy theories. And if you speak Spanish, your feed is probably full of them.
This is no coincidence. Meta, TikTok and YouTube have systemically failed to remove Spanish language disinformation content when the very same content in English is flagged or taken down much quicker. This failure to act could lead to widespread voter suppression in Latinx communities.
Pressure from thousands of people like you has already pushed Facebook to pause all political ads ahead of the Midterms. But this isn’t enough. We need the social media giants to take serious and immediate measures to ensure Spanish speakers aren't unfairly targeted with lies. Sign and share.
Tell Meta, TikTok and YouTube: Crack down on Spanish disinformation.
The tech giants will come back and say they are already doing a lot. But we have the receipts.
The vast majority of their budgets and resources go to remove English language misinformation in the United States. 87% to be exact. What about everyone else?
Everybody, regardless of the language they communicate in, deserves access to truthful and trustworthy information. We’re here to remind platforms of this.
These billion-dollar tech companies can easily afford to recruit more human moderators, invest in smarter AI systems to detect disinformation, and come clean about the steps they’re already taking to prevent, curb and remove toxic content.
Tell Meta, TikTok and YouTube: Double down on Spanish disinformation.
SumOfUs members just like you recently forced Apple to adopt a new human rights policy. We know together we can make corporations listen. Let’s do it again.
SumOfUs is calling on Meta, TikTok, YouTube and Twitter to immediately implement a series of actions exemplified below:
1) Publish clear community guidelines translated into all languages in which your platform operates and make it clear that a user’s service can be terminated for engaging in hateful activities.
2) Prioritize preventing, curbing, and removing Spanish-language disinformation and initiate programs and/or software trained in Spanish to counter disinformation campaigns targeting the Latinx community.
3) Equitably enforce their content moderation policies to ensure that the appropriate amount of attention and resources are given to moderate Spanish-language content. This includes hiring more human content moderators who are fully trained on the nuances of how disinformation spreads, in addition to being Latinx and fluent in regional or local Spanish dialects and cultures.
4) Publicly disclose how and to what extent Spanish-language disinformation and hateful activities are proactively monitored, user-reported, and removed from the platform. Include information in public transparency reports that detail discrepancies between labelling or removing Spanish vs. English content and how your enforcement practices are broken down by language.
More information
Tech Crunch. 16 August 2022.
New York Times. 12 October 2022.
The Guardian. 6 October 2022.
Vox. 20 September 2022.