Election misinformation is a problem in every language. But some get more attention than others

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Warnings about AI-powered deepfakes and misinformation. Concerns about campaigns and candidates using social media to spread lies about the election. Fears that tech companies will fail to address these issues as their platforms are used to undermine democracy ahead of crucial elections.

These are the concerns facing state elections -United States, where most voters speak English. But for languages ​​like Spanish, or in dozens of countries where English is not the dominant language, there are even fewer safeguards in place to protect voters and democracy from the corrosive effects of electoral misinformation . It's a problem to attract renewed attention during an election year in which more people than ever will go to the polls.

Tech companies have faced intense pressure politicians in countries like the United States and in places like the European Union to show that they are serious about fighting the baseless claims, hate speech and authoritarian propaganda that pollute their sites. But critics say they have been less responsive to similar concerns from smaller countries or voters speaking other languages, reflecting a long-standing bias favoring English, the United States and others. Western democracies.

Recent changes at tech companies — Layoffs of content moderators and decisions to roll back some misinformation policies have only made the situation worse, although new technologies like Artificial intelligence makes it easier than ever to create realistic audio and video that can fool voters.

These gaps have opened opportunities for candidates, political parties or foreign adversaries seeking to create electoral chaos by targeting non-English speakers – whether they are Latinos in the United States or one of the million voters in India. , for example, who speak a language other than English.

“If there is a significant population that speaks another language, you can be sure that they will be targeted with disinformation,” he said. said Randy Abreu, attorney at the U.S.-based National Hispanic Media Council, which created the Spanish-Language Disinformation Coalition to track and identify misinformation targeting Latino voters in the United States. “The power of artificial intelligence is now making this an even scarier reality. »

Many big tech companies regularly tout their efforts to protect elections, and not just in the United States and the European Union. This month, Meta is launching a service on WhatsApp that will allow users to report possible AI deepfakes for action by fax...