USA: Lawmakers urge Facebook to tackle 'Spanish-language disinformation crisis'
Members of Congress and activist groups have called on Facebook to address its “Spanish-language disinformation crisis”, urging the company to make major policy changes on the platforms it owns.
In a new campaign launched on Tuesday and coordinated by the Real Facebook Oversight Board, an advocacy group, the Democratic representative Tony Cardenas of California and groups including Free Press Action, the Center for American Progress and the National Hispanic Media Coalition charge that Facebook is not doing enough to combat “rampant Spanish-language disinformation” circulating on Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram that is putting Latino communities at risk.
“[Facebook has] allowed their platform to be used to amplify hate and disinformation about and at our community,” said Jessica J González, the co-CEO of the media reform advocacy group Free Press at the launch of the #YaBastaFacebook campaign. “It shows a complete disregard and complete disrespect for the Latino community.”
The calls come amid growing warnings from advocacy groups that Facebook removes Spanish-language misinformation less consistently on its platforms than it does misinformation in English.