The dangerous impact of ‘fake news’ on the lives of Spanish speakers in the United States

Journalists from different origins have come together to trace the origins of fake news and combat the most viral misinformation being circulated in Spanish. These fact-checkers have detected how toxic media especially affects Latino communities in the United States Fake news Mexico – Dec 26, 2023 – 16:04 CET Lies usually have greater reach than truths. They spread much faster, a phenomenon that has been exacerbated by globalization. Misinformation spreads more and more quickly across countries and continents through social media and other channels of information. Hoaxes tend to create a lot of media confusion around current events, such as the war on Gaza and the geopolitical tensions between Israel and other countries, the recent elections in Argentina, or the announcement of new immigration laws in the United States. Events that currently have the world in suspense can be twisted by fake news. From different coordinates across the planet, fact-checkers trace the journey of fake news and create evidence-based content to debunk the most viral hoaxes. These scams usually always revolve around the same themes: politics, armed conflicts, health and human rights. “The Spanish-speaking community in the United States is especially vulnerable,” explains Tamoa Calzadilla, a Venezuelan journalist and one of the founders of Factchequeado — a platform that tracks the misinformation that most affects Spanish speakers. The organization is fighting back against the toxic media that’s poisoning America, a country that’s a desert of information when it comes to Spanish. Hispanic citizens represent almost 20% of the U.S. population, “but they’re orphaned by news in their language,” Calzadilla notes. Quality journalism in Spanish is a very scarce commodity and barely has funding. “Translations from English are usually of poor quality… they don’t take into account the way in which Latinos express themselves. And the sections aimed at them […]

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