Elite & Mass Political Behavior

Social media is used by millions of Americans to access news and politics. Yet there are no studies, to date, examining whether these behaviors systematically vary for those whose political incorporation process is distinct from those in the majority. We fill this void by examining how Latino online political activity compares to that of white Americans and the role of language in Latinos’ online political engagement. We hypothesize that Latino online political activity is comparable to whites. Moreover, given media reports suggesting that greater quantities of political misinformation are circulating on Spanish versus English-language social media, we expect reliance on Spanish-language social media for news predicts beliefs in inaccurate political narratives. Our survey findings, which we believe to be the largest original survey of the online political activity of Latinos and whites, reveal support for these expectations. Latino social media political activity, as measured by sharing/viewing news, talking about politics, and following politicians, is comparable to whites, both in self-reported and digital trace data. Latinos also turned to social media for news about COVID-19 more often than did whites. Finally, Latinos relying on Spanish-language social media usage for news predicts beliefs in election fraud in the 2020 U.S. Presidential election.

False political narratives are nearly inescapable on social media in the United States. They are a particularly acute problem for Latinos, and especially for those who rely on Spanish-language social media for news and information. Studies have shown that Latinos are vulnerable to misinformation because they rely more heavily on social media and messaging platforms than non-Hispanic whites. Moreover, fact-checking algorithms are not as robust in Spanish as they are in English, and social media platforms put far more effort into combating misinformation on English-language media than Spanish-language media, which compounds the likelihood of being exposed to misinformation. As a result, we expect that Latinos who use Spanish-language social media to be more likely to believe in false political narratives when compared with Latinos who primarily rely on English-language social media for news. To test this expectation, we fielded the largest online survey to date of social media usage and belief in political misinformation of Latinos. Our study, fielded in the months leading up to and following the 2022 midterm elections, examines a variety of false political narratives that were circulating in both Spanish and English on social media. We find that social media reliance for news predicts one’s belief in false political stories, and that Latinos who use Spanish-language social media have a higher probability of believing in false political narratives, compared with Latinos using English-language social media.