When Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube announced major actions against QAnon accounts in recent months, they were praised for the swift and apparently successful dismantling of the networks on their platforms.
But QAnon followers don’t only speak English, and the social networks’ blind spot to accounts in other languages meant that major accounts and channels that promote the baseless conspiracy theory have remained on their platforms.
Now those same accounts are using their reach to spread election disinformation targeting Latino voters.
On Wednesday, with the outcome of the presidential election unclear, a number of hugely popular Spanish-language YouTube channels that typically share conspiracy theories began broadcasting their own live election coverage.
One of those was El Oraculo de Zamna, who claimed during his live stream on Wednesday that Trump had won the election and that Democrats were trying to launch a coup against Trump.
YouTube’s failure to sanction these Spanish-language channels highlights a major weak spot in social media companies’ efforts to eradicate misinformation: Those efforts are typically focused on English-language content, allowing Spanish-language disinformation to flourish.
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Source: Spanish-Language QAnon Accounts Spread Pro-Trump Misinformation in Florida