Washington, DC – Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, were joined by their Spanish counterparts Pau Marí-Klose, Chairman of the Chamber of Deputies’ Foreign Affairs Committee, and Antonio Gutiérrez Limones, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, in releasing the below statement to voice their concerns regarding Spanish-language disinformation and misinformation:

 “We, the Chairs of the Foreign Relations Committees of the United States and Spain, express our deep concern over the spread and amplification of Spanish-language dis/misinformation on social media and encrypted messaging platforms in our respective countries and across Latin America and the Caribbean.

The spread of misleading, inaccurate, or false news through disinformation and misinformation activities has distorted and polarized information environments, causing significant real-world harm. Malicious actors, including some governments, have increasingly adopted such activities, undermining democratic governance, human rights, and public health responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. We deplore, in particular, the active participation of agents that engage in these practices from the territory of the Russian Federation or with support of the Russian government, in addition to other destabilizing activities carried out by the Putin government outside its borders in recent years.

Dis/misinformation activities are present across traditional and digital media, and proliferate faster and farther on social media and encrypted messaging platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, WhatsApp, and Telegram.

Although Spanish has the second largest number of native speakers and is the fourth most spoken language globally, these platforms have repeatedly prioritized English-language content moderation, failing to invest sufficient resources into addressing equally harmful Spanish-language dis/misinformation. Spanish-speaking populations in our two countries and across Latin America and the Caribbean are especially vulnerable to the effects of digital dis/misinformation because they rely heavily on these platforms as primary news and communication sources. 

We call on these platforms to meet their obligations to users, and urge them to redouble their efforts to increase detection of and enforcement against dis/misinformation content in Spanish and other languages, and to strengthen transparency over such efforts.

We also urge the governments of President Joe Biden and President Pedro Sánchez to undertake additional efforts to counter Spanish-language dis/misinformation, including convening stakeholders from multiple sectors to share knowledge and best practices, develop coordinated responses, and strengthen vulnerable information environments, while maintaining respect for the internationally recognized right to freedom of expression.”

The joint statement was signed by: