Report: Spanish Language Misinformation Still A Big Problem On Facebook

In the wake of the last two presidential elections, Facebook has taken many steps to crack down on spam and misinformation aiming to sway users. However, according to many advocates, the company hasn’t done enough to address these problems for its Spanish-speaking users.

According to recent reports, Spanish language misinformation has spread rapidly on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp over the past several months. And because WhatsApp offers end-to-end encryption, there’s no real way for the company to police what information is being shared between users. However, Meta defended itself by saying that it offers fact-checking resources for the Spanish language community.

“Unlike many of those other platforms, we’ve taken serious steps to address misinformation on WhatsApp by limiting forwards, partnering with fact-checkers to run tip lines in Spanish, and empowering people with tools to access accurate information, including in Spanish,” Meta spokesperson Dani Lever told CNN.

Of course, end-to-end encryption is one of the main selling points of WhatsApp, and it offers strong privacy protections for users. However, it also comes with some notable downsides, including offering potential cover for criminal operations (or the spread of blatant misinformation). Facebook is once again in between a rock and a hard place, and even when it does the right thing by protecting user privacy, it still manages to stumble into yet another problem.




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