Sen. Menendez calls for vigilance on Spanish-language Russian propaganda

Senators called on Meta, Twitter and Telegram to address and moderate Russian disinformation campaigns on their platforms that target Spanish-speaking audiences in letters sent to their leaders on Wednesday.

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was joined by Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.) in expressing “deep concern” over Russia’s efforts targeting Latin American and Caribbean audiences through state media outlets RT en Español and Sputnik Mundo, which they referred to as “the cornerstone of the Kremlin’s Spanish-language disinformation and propaganda system.”

The trio raised their concerns amid Russian President Vladimir Putin’s information war against both Western adversaries and his own citizens over his invasion of Ukraine, which recently entered its sixth month.

“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 senators wrote in letters address to Meta Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter CEO Parag Agarwal and Telegram CEO Pavel Durov.

“[D]isinformation campaigns by Russian state media’s Spanish-language outlets targeted at Latin American and Caribbean audiences regularly reach Spanish-speaking communities in the United States, directly harming our national interests. We are deeply concerned by reports that the operations and reach of such outlets have only increased amid Putin’s actions in Ukraine.”

The senators called on the platforms to increase resources for efforts to identify and moderate the spread of Spanish-language disinformation content about Russia’s “special military operation” so that they are in parity with the same efforts aimed at such disinformation in English.

“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 added.

The Ukraine war rages on, with the Kremlin and its proxies moving quickly to annex captured territories in the face of a new Ukrainian counter-offensive in the south. One expert reported on Wednesday that Russia has lost over one third of its national tank fleet in Ukraine so far.