Los Angeles Times: Latinx Files: Facebook’s Latinx Disinformation Problem
It’s no secret that Facebook has a misinformation problem in Spanish and English, but just how much did the company know about how that disinformation was spreading in Latinx communities? According to a troubling new report from my colleagues Brian Contreras and Maloy Moore, it turns out Facebook knew a lot more than it let on.
“Facebook has not been transparent at all,” Jacobo Licona, a disinformation researcher at Equis Labs, told The Times. Also, he said, the company “has not been cooperative with lawmakers or Latinx-serving organizations” working to combat its spread.
The article highlights how the company, which also owns social platforms Instagram and WhatsApp, repeatedly stonewalled Latino-centric advocacy groups, even after Facebook’s own employees were ringing the alarm internally, according to documents made public by whistleblower Frances Haugen. Among the issues employees flagged were possible voting suppression and the discouraging of Latinxs from filling out the census form.
What’s troubling is the company hasn’t really said how it plans to fix the spread of viral misinformation in the Latinx community. In June, a group of senators and representatives wrote a letter expressing “concerns regarding the increasing rate of Spanish and other non-English language disinformation.”
“We received a response from Facebook, and it was really more of the same — no concrete, direct answers to any of our questions,” said a spokesperson for Rep. Tony Cárdenas (D-Pacoima), one of the signatories.
Even worse is the fact that Facebook, which has now rebranded to Meta, has pivoted to a more defensive approach when in comes to addressing controversies.
Back in September, I made a snide comment about how you should be concerned that Mark Zuckerberg was going to be a key player in building out the metaverse, the virtual reality version of the internet that looks to be our future. But I also meant it. Facebook has already staked a claim. That should be concerning to you.
After all, what makes you think this company will be adept at dealing with all the problems that will surely arise with the advent of this new technology? What indication have you gotten from Facebook that it would even care?
By: Fidel Martinez
Source: Los Angeles Times