(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
 . . . . . . . . . .



New Report Finds Spanish-Language Conspiracy Theories Now Influencing English-Speaking Kooks [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-10-03  

The fossil fuel industry's propaganda machine began, and historically operates most heavily in English, so for the past decade as social media became the last thriving vector for climate denial, we saw that Spanish-language social media disinfo was often a translation of false claims from English. Not always, but often enough that it meant that if we could reduce the production of English-language disinformation, it would go a long way toward cleaning up digital information ecosystems outside the Anglosphere, because the professional denial would no longer be readily available to translate.

Now, though, a new report from Green Latinos, Graphika, and Friends of the Earth found that (just a year after confirming the English-to-Spanish pattern ) the reverse has begun to happen. Aided by social media companies’ misinformation-amplifying algorithms , English-speaking conspiracy theorists are now reaching beyond the language barrier to amplify conspiracy theories in other languages, giving us yet another headache.

The report specifically points to the false narrative that wildfires are being started intentionally in order to clear the way for wind farms. That combination of the old 'arson not climate change ' denial with the new 'elites are pulling the strings to make room for renewable energy projects' conspiracy theory proved attractive enough for English-speaking deniers to co-opt.

According to Graphika's network analysis, Greek-speaking Twitter accounts first spread the conspiracy theory back in 2018 during Greece's devastating wildfires. Then, Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking digital conspiracy theory accounts adopted the misinformation in response to the wildfires in Chile and then Spain. Finally, English-speaking communities caught on to this conspiracy theory trend, putting this false narrative to good use in June with the Canadian wildfires, in July with the Greek wildfires, and in August with the Hawai’i wildfires..

It was the Hawai’i wildfires that spurred the biggest spike in misinformation, which is no surprise seeing as there was a wider surge of false claims , including, for example, that arsonists were after lithium deposits. One trick, used by pop culture clickbait accounts, involved falsely claiming that internet-beloved celebrities supposedly revealed other celebs' conspiracy involvement. For example, Snopes fact-checked a multitude of misinformation including a video claiming that Keanu Reeves accused Oprah Winfrey and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson of embezzling wildfire relief money, a similar video involving Jason Mamoa , an AI-generated clip in which Tom Hanks appears to accuse Oprah of having "orchestrated" the fires, another false claim targeting Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, yet another video where this time Tom Hanks is accused of wrongdoing by his son Chet, and even a false rumor pulling Dolly Parton into the mix .

So now, thanks to social media companies’ insistence that terrible people should be able to spread lies and chaos because stopping them would mean fewer targets for ad sales, local public servants tasked with the already-difficult job of keeping communities safe from wildfires also have to worry about being attacked by conspiracy-theory-believing neighbors blaming global elites for wildfires – instead of climate change .

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/3/2197049/-New-Report-Finds-Spanish-Language-Conspiracy-Theories-Now-Influencing-English-Speaking-Kooks

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/