Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus called for a formal meeting with the CEOs of social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok, to address disinformation directed at the Latino community on various topics, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. 19.
“We write as members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) to respectfully request a meeting with you to discuss the issue of misinformation in Spanish on your platform, as well as to obtain more information about the steps your company is taking to address this very serious problem”, says each of the letters.
The letters express the same petition in its first paragraph, but they offer a context for each social network about its behavior, misinformation and the universe of the Latino community they serve.
“Ending misinformation in Spanish must continue to be a priority. Many state and federal agencies, members of Congress, and public health organizations rely on social media to communicate vital life-saving information and share federal resources during the COVID pandemic-19”, indicated the congressmen led by representative Raul Ruiz (California).
They are 38 members of Congress, representatives and senators, who sign the letters addressed to Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook; Parag Agrawal of Twitter; Susan Wojcicki, from YouTube, and Shou Zi Chew, from TikTok.
“This is not the first time that members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus have expressed deep concern about this issue,” the congressmen recall of the panel. “In July, congressmen spearheaded a letter signed by 26 members of Congress on this very issue demanding concrete evidence of investment to combat disinformation in Spanish on their platform.”
They also remind the social networks and the YouTube portal of details about the strategy to detect the prevalence of separate “infringing” content by language.
They point out that, to date, the responses from all the companies “are deeply worrying.”
Senator Bob Menéndez (New Jersey), the Latino with the most high-ranking Congress, recalled that he had joined this petition last year, focused on the COVID-19 pandemic crisis and the risks of allowing misinformation in the social network.
“Menéndez also criticized Facebook for its continued lack of transparency and asked the platform to publish data on misinformation about vaccines,” the senator’s office recalled in a statement.
It was also recalled that the Democrat has pressured that social network to provide information about different “misleading advertisements” that even incite hatred, such as PrEP aimed at the LGBTQ+ community.
“In most cases, Facebook responses lacked substantial information.”
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