US Senate calls on social media to limit russian propaganda in Spanish

A bipartisan group of US senators called on Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, and Telegram to do more to thwart russian efforts to spread fake news about the invasion of Ukraine in Spanish. This is stated in a message on the official website of one of the appeal's initiators, the chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Robert Menendez, reports Ukrinform.

"As putin’s regime takes increasingly draconian measures to prevent its own citizens from accessing the truth, by blocking social media and stamping out any remaining semblance of independent media in the country, russian state media continues to exploit the platform provided by [Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, and Telegram] to amplify and export its lies abroad," the post stresses.

The senators paid special attention to the russian disinformation campaign in the Spanish-speaking russian media, aimed at the audience of Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as the Spanish-speaking community of the United States. Namely, the russian resources RT en Espanol and Sputnik Mundo and their social media pages were mentioned in this context. This, as the document notes, is "directly harming the national interests" of the United States.

The lawmakers also called on the platforms to allocate additional resources to limit the flow of disinformation from the russian federation in the English-speaking environment as well.

"In these extraordinary circumstances, we must remain vigilant about the ability of known purveyors of Russian disinformation to propagate falsehoods about Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, whether in Spanish or any other language," the senators stressed.

The petition was signed by Senators Robert Menendez, Tim Kaine and Bill Cassidy.

In April, a group of over 20 US lawmakers reportedly sent a similar letter to Facebook.