For generations, Latinos have assuaged the longing for the people left behind by defying the distance created by migration. Handwritten postcards flew over walls; faxes outpaced the buses; and phone calls were cheaper than planes. And then, with the boom of tech, came a boom of clicks. For years, Latinos have been more likely to own smartphones and spend more time on social media than anyone else. But it’s not just a love story anymore.
The internet has transformed into a double-edged sword for Latinos. It’s both saving and killing us.
At the peak of the pandemic, Latinos were 57 percent more likely to use social media as a primary source of information about COVID-19 than non-Latinos, according to Nielsen. That emotional vulnerability and dependency is exactly what disinformation feeds off, slowly exploiting users’ deepest anxieties. We saw it during the 2020 election, as Latino voters in South Florida were flooded with false messages equating Joe Biden to a Communist, weaponizing the trauma of those who fled authoritarianism. We’re currently seeing the same playbook: Our lifeline of connectivity has morphed into a harbor of vaccine disinformation. Then, it may have cost votes; now, disinformation is costing lives.
Less than a year ago, Latinos were dying from COVID-19 at rates higher than their share of the population in 19 states across the country. Not surprisingly, a recent Pew Study found that at least 50 percent of Latinos in the U.S. know someone who has either been hospitalized or has died from the virus. And still, far too many Latinos are choosing not to get the vaccine.
It’s become an instinct to blame the unvaccinated for perpetuating the pandemic. Yet big tech has fostered an environment for Spanish-speaking Latinos to become the perfect victims of online disinformation.
We know that mis- and disinformation isn’t well monitored when it’s in English—but the reality is, it’s virtually non-existent in Spanish. According to the non-profit Avaaz, Facebook flags just 30 percent of misinformation in Spanish, compared to 70% in English. Misinformation in Spanish can remain posted for longer periods of time than in English before it’s taken down. Those seconds, hours and days add up. As Voto Latino found in a survey conducted in April, 40 percent of Latinos reported seeing content that made them think the vaccine was “not safe or effective.” At that time, the Delta variant represented 0.1 percent of cases in the United States. Today, it represents 93 percent of all new cases.
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