Pamela Cruz. Peninsula 360 Press.
The ultra-right in the U.S. seeks to create disinformation among the Latino and Afro-descendant electorate and, thus, prevent them from voting in the elections to be held on November 3.
This was pointed out by the researcher of Equis LabsJacobo Licona, who pointed out that the far-right group that supports the current president and candidate for the Republican Party, Donald Trump, creates distractions and confusion in order to prevent this sector of the population from casting their vote.
"Bad actors are using social media with the goal of misinformation, voter suppression and diminishing enthusiasm among key progressive voters, including the Latino community," he noted.
And, he said, there are various cultural and demographic nuances within the Latino and other Afro-descendant communities, especially geographic and generational, that create conditions that easily lead to misinformation or disinformation.
In this regard, he noted that, in the case of people from the Latino community, the Spanish language allows gaps in information to be created, which can be exploited to create misleading narratives.
In the Latino community, he said, "voters tend to follow political news less. As a result, they are more susceptible to these types of tactics."
False narratives are often amplified on social networks - media used by the Latino community - especially to learn about political issues, Licona said during the videoconference "Manipulating the vote: how to detect the disinformation that threatens the U.S. elections," held by Ethnic Media Services.
Also, he said, there is external interference, as is the case of Russia, where groups have exploited issues such as immigration, in addition to the fact that disinformation is promoted through messaging platforms such as WhatsApp.
"We know that (WhatsApp) is very popular among the Latino community and also among other Afro-descendant communities. It is fundamental for the dissemination of information and disinformation, which is a problem because, on these platforms, it is more difficult to know what is going on," he stressed.
He added that the far right has also sought to create racial tension and division among the Latino and Afro-descendant communities in order to generate confusion and fear.
"This division seeks to suppress Latino voters and voters of color, what they are trying to do is create division and also widespread distrust about the system, which can affect the way people vote."
The disinformation that has been seen during this electoral period has surpassed previous ones, since this time, he pointed out, it has made many voters distrust the postal service, even though this means of voting is very safe.
"Trump is constantly pushing this theory about mail-in voting, and in doing so, many are amplifying theories of voter fraud and manipulation: claiming that the left is trying to steal the election through mail-in voting."
This, he noted, undermines confidence in both the electoral process and the integrity of the election results.
An example of the above, he pointed out, is a series of propaganda that points out that socialism is growing and that it will come to the United States, in case Joe Biden wins, a Democratic candidate who is continually linked to this type of political and economic doctrines.
For his part, the director of the Algorithmic Transparency of the National Citizen's ConferenceCameron Hickey noted that "viral disinformation is contagious and dangerous, just like a real virus. This content spreads because people share it with each other. And it creates serious problems that endanger our health and the future of our democracy."
He pointed out that disinformation touches on very specific topics, such as conspiracies, extremist theories that cause fear and try to manipulate people, who even change their behavior because of them.
He added that this disinformation is usually out of context, lacks logic, brings up issues from the past, uses terms that divide and incite hatred, or is based on "pseudoscience".
In these elections, he pointed out that the key issues have been QAnon: A conspiracy theory founded and spread by the extreme right, through social networks since 2017, whose leader "Q", to date, is unknown, but who spreads first-hand information from the government.
QAnon is part of the history of politics in the United States mainly because of theories that point to a very privileged sector in the U.S. that seeks to influence, in a very deep way, in the politics of the country, to such a degree that it has tried to establish a "dark state", where racism is sown, mainly, fascist and anti-Semitic factions are superimposed, and from where xenophobia is promoted; from QAnon there are also satanic cults whose purpose is to sacrifice minors for sexual purposes.
QAnon is not limited to the political elite, but also the financial and banking elite, the food consumption industry, it is said to be linked to pharmaceuticals, the entertainment industry and the media, the latter being the way and means for disinformation.
Another issue is the civil warwhich includes messages from both the right and the left that the country should prepare for armed conflict and threaten supposed consequences if the elections do not turn out in their favor.
Ideological hyperbolemessages that indicate that a candidate or political party will establish or perpetuate an extremist ideology such as Nazism or Communism.
Access to vote is another hot topic in these elections, as misconceptions are spread about when, where and how to vote. An example of that, he said, is the false information that "Republicans vote on Wednesdays, and Democrats vote on Tuesdays."
The risk that the transfer of ballots may suffer is a recurring theme and concern; this narrative sends a message that questions and exposes the problems of voting by mail, for example, that they may be stolen, manipulated, retained or burned, and thus propitiate electoral fraud.
Therefore, it was emphasized that each citizen has a role to play to reduce the impact of this content that generates confusion and distrust during the electoral process, so it was called to verify the information received and invite others to do the same, such as reporting such content to platforms like Junkipedia and, finally, to share truthful and verifiable information.
