In recent days, a wave of false and misleading content about the Los Angeles protests has permeated social media platforms, particularly among Latino communities who are predominantly engaging in Spanish.
These posts have sought to dynamically link protesters to socialist or communist ideologies.
One post on X has garnered over 600,000 views and claims, without providing any substantiation, that immigration protest groups in the U.S. are associated with entities like “the Venezuelan mafia,” the Communist Party of Cuba, and the leftist Morena Party in Mexico.
This narrative closely mirrors similar misinformation observed during the 2020 George Floyd protests and again during the pro-Palestinian student protests in 2024.
Large portions of Los Angeles and various cities nationwide have hosted demonstrations against immigration raids, a response to President Donald Trump’s administration enforcing stringent immigration policies.
Dramatic scenes have circulated widely on social media, showcasing burning vehicles, including Waymo taxis, and protesters clashing with law enforcement.
While some far-left groups have covertly encouraged and even celebrated violence within these protests, the influx of misleading Spanish-language posts appears to serve the purpose of associating immigration protest efforts with leftist Latin American governments, often in support of President Donald Trump and his policies.
Evelyn Pérez-Verdía, the president of We Are Más, which specializes in social impact consultation, noted that there has indeed been a noticeable increase in misleading information since the onset of the Los Angeles protests.
Traditionally, such false narratives have been more obscured within niche platforms like Telegram and WhatsApp; however, Pérez-Verdía observes that they are now rampant and easily accessible across mainstream social media and online publications.
The recurring theme of these falsehoods suggests that protests are merely orchestrated provocations by leftist governments rather than genuine reactions to immigration enforcement.
On his social media platform, Truth Social, Donald Trump has unfoundedly labeled protesters as “Paid Insurrectionists!”
Both Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and California Gov. Gavin Newsom have found themselves at the center of misinformation campaigns that unjustly tie them to communism.
One particularly fabricated image that has circulated shows Bass posing with the late Cuban leader Fidel Castro, suggesting a false connection.
In reality, the original photograph featured Castro alongside the late activist and former South African President Nelson Mandela.
Bass’s previous trips to Cuba for volunteer work with the Venceremos Brigade during the 1970s and her controversial remarks in 2020, when she referred to Castro’s passing as “a great loss,” have been misconstrued to amplify false narratives about her political affiliations.
Pérez-VerdÍA pointed out that the misleading information circulating in Spanish differs from that in English, with a specific focus on elected officials like Newsom and Bass.
She emphasized that the discourse surrounding extreme leftism and communism is tailored according to the audience being targeted, suggesting a coordinated effort by both domestic and foreign influencers.
In certain instances, misleading posts have permeated government circles.
Conservative and pro-Russian social media accounts have circulated what they allege to be a video of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum supporting the protests, creating a narrative of foreign interference in U.S. domestic politics.
During a recent Oval Office briefing, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accused Sheinbaum of instigating “violent protests,” to which Sheinbaum responded on X, refuting the claim as “absolutely false.”
She further provided a video as evidence of her opposition to violence in protests, accusing opposition parties of falsely claiming her incitement.
Distorted imagery suggesting that the protests are a communist movement often features symbols like the hammer and sickle.
One Spanish-language post with tens of thousands of views has described the demonstrations as “URBAN COMMUNIST TERRORISM.”
Another account with over a million followers has glorified violence against what they label “progressive anti-ICE protestors.”
Such circumstances have created a favorable environment for misinformation to thrive.
According to Darren Linvill, a professor at Clemson University and co-director of its Media Forensic Hub, fake accounts disseminating Spanish-language misinformation are more prevalent than their English counterparts.
He noted that social media platforms are quicker to identify and shut down misleading accounts that operate in English than those in other languages.
Linvill suggests that the increase in Spanish-language misinformation can also be attributed to the rising use of marketing companies employing fake accounts for political entities.
He emphasized that the spread of misinformation contributes to deepening partisanship, fostering conspiratorial thinking, and breeding distrust in expertise, ultimately undermining the possibility of a shared reality.
As Linvill put it, “A shared reality is important for us to build compromise and govern nations together, and I think it is absolutely having an effect on that.”
He remarked on the difficulty in discerning the extent to which nefarious actors are responsible for this misinformation spread compared to the inherent nature of social media, which can amplify the propagation of false information.
image source from：https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/los-angeles-protests-misinformation-spanish-immigration-rcna212862
