On MSNBC's Cross Connection, Angelo Carusone calls for social media companies to enforce their rules equally in English and Spanish
Carusone: “One thing that's really clear is that there's an absolute discrepancy in the way that social media companies, particularly YouTube and Facebook, enforce their existing rules about disinformation”
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From the April 23, 2022, edition of MSNBC's Cross Connection
JUANITA MONSALVE (UNITED WE DREAM): So for us, it was really important to take a look at what type of anti-immigrant narrative is out there, how is it be weaponized against our communities and what are they consuming in this moment? Part of what we discovered is that young Latinx women, 18-35, are consuming a wide variety of news and they are engaging with stories about immigrants. While, for young Latinx men, again 18-35, what we found is that they are a lot more insular, they're in a virtual world, and they aren't consuming much media about immigration or immigrants. And the reason why that is important is because it presents a huge vacuum that could very easily be weaponized and taken advantage of by bad actors. So we need to get out there and engage with them right now if we want to see them engage with us in the 2022 election and much more in the 2024 election. Right now they are being left behind when it comes to actually being ensured that they are engaged in voting.
TIFFANY CROSS (HOST): Well, you brought up Latino men, and I want to get your take on this Angelo, because like she talked about, Latino men over the age of 36, they're the primary audience for these clusters on YouTube, news clusters. They also encounter a lot of disinformation, polarizing anti-immigrant stories. I'm curious how can reputable information outlets, or reputable information, find this specific demographic?
ANGELO CARUSONE (MEDIA MATTERS PRESIDENT): This is going to be a real challenge because everybody is behind, and I think that is one of the big alarm bells that was reflected in this story and the observation you just made. I always try to look for the easiest things that are achievable first that won't fix the entire problem but will start to make meaningful gains. One thing that's really clear is that there's an absolute discrepancy in the way that social media companies, particularly YouTube and Facebook, enforce their existing rules about disinformation. So, yeah, there is a lot that has to be done that's more, but one thing that is clear, that can be done, is they can apply the same standards as it relates to the things that are already against the rules.
So if you are going to take down very, very explicit anti-immigrant, anti-hate, and election misinformation in English language, but you're going to leave the exact same material up and proliferating widely in Spanish language, that's going to be a real problem, and that is happening every single day on the platforms. And part of it is because they haven't made the investments, so that's one piece. The second piece is that, and I think this gets more specifically about news agencies, they are going to have to meet people where they are. And one of the big takeaways, and not just from the analysis that United We Dream did, but from every piece of research over the last two years that has come out, is that it is more peer to peer. It is closed groups. Young Latinos in particular, they are using WhatsApp almost two and a half times more than every other demographic in the population. So if we're not thinking about doing research, doing reporting, and thinking about those as part of the information landscape, we'll never be able to get a hold of the narrative and then the responses.