“Disinformation is like pouring rain, and you’re trying to catch it with a bucket”
Atlanta-based fact-checker Rafael Olavarría talks about his work with “Factchequeado,” one of only four projects in U.S. fact-checking information in Spanish.
Written and reported by Timothy Pratt
Rafael Olavarría was scrolling through Instagram at his Atlanta home in late February when he saw a post from a local Univisión reporter about the tragic killing of nursing student Laken Riley at the University of Georgia in Athens.
“I thought, ‘Oh no, here it comes,’” he recalled. “Every time there’s a crime, and the suspect is an immigrant, the focus of the story…is the perception that immigration equals crime,” he said.
Born in Venezuela, Olavarría also soon saw signs of worry from compatriots in Georgia about “being stigmatized,” as the accused killer was also Venezuelan.
He swung into high gear, researching and writing an article for the two-year-old Spanish-language project, “Factchequeado,” a service journalism project dedicated to “combatting disinformation” for Latinos in the U.S.
It is one of less than a handful of such projects in the country. In an election year with a record 36.2 million Hispanics eligible to vote, and who will be seeking accurate information to help them make decisions about candidates, Factchequeado is likely to get even busier.
On Feb. 27, only days after Riley’s killing, Olavarría – a former reporter for CNN en Español and Univisión Atlanta – posted an article on Factchequeado’s site titled, “Be careful of these six narratives that spread misinformation about immigration in the U.S.” He also posted a reel on Instagram, debunking myths around immigration and crime.
The first of the six narratives: “Migration increases the crime rate.” Olavarría wrote: “Several experts consulted by Factchequeado agree that there is no data or studies showing a causal relationship between immigration and an increase in the crime rate.” (Many articles on the site, including this one, are also translated to English.)
The article soon landed in the inboxes of 60 partner news outlets and other organizations in 20 states, mostly Spanish-language. Included among them are El Nuevo Georgia and Prensa Atlanta, two of the state’s growing number of Spanish-language news outlets trying to reach the state’s million-plus Latinos, now 10.5% of the population – more than 800,000 of whom speak Spanish at home.
It was all in a day’s work for Olavarría, who began recognizing the need for fact-checking in the Hispanic community in 2020, while reporting for Univisión Atlanta. “I saw all the disinformation about Covid and the elections, and the consequences in Georgia’s Hispanic community,” he said. Once, he found himself “putting a magnet on my arm, where I had gotten the [Covid] vaccine,” while on the air – to disprove the idea that the vaccine somehow made his body magnetic.
“It was a serious problem … and the disinformation was even worse on Spanish-language social media,” he said.
Social media “has no accountability to the truth,” said Teresa Puente, journalism professor At California State University Long Beach. “Unlike journalism, there’s no consequences for spreading disinformation.” The large platforms – Facebook, Instagram, X, Tik Tok – also have a lot less Spanish-speaking personnel monitoring content, she said, so “a lot more gets through.”
Puente recently wrote a paper titled “Factchequeado: Fakes News in Spanish Knows No Borders.” In it, she identifies 71 U.S. fact-checking websites in English, and only three in Spanish – Telemundo runs one, called “T Verifica,” Univisión runs another called “El Detector,” and Factchequeado. There’s also the Spanish-language version of “Lead Stories,” launched in October.
“Entering election season, the issue [of fighting disinformation] becomes even more important,” Puente told 285 South. “There’s AI, with Biden’s voice, and orchestrated campaigns from Russia, Iran and China … to try and control US voters, and feed disinformation.”
Puente analyzed the fact-checking project’s first 16 months and found that “the majority of fake news debunked by Factchequeado focused on health, science, politics and social media.”
Prensa Atlanta has used the project’s material on subjects ranging from consumer scam alerts to a new series of explainers about U.S. elections. El Nuevo Georgia has a separate section on its website for “Factchequeado” content, and has posted information ranging from health to the case against Donald Trump for taking classified documents.
The project has also expanded, with funding from sources such as the Google News Initiative and the Reynolds Journalism Institute, this month publishing a bilingual “Guide for Journalists Covering Latino and Spanish-Speaking Communities.” The 129-page guide includes such information as how to verify AI-created images and how to use Google Earth for geolocation.
Factchequeado is also working with Tik-Tok to identify concerns about viral content in Spanish based on false information. The project posts articles and videos on WhatsApp, Instagram, and Tik-Tok.
At times, Olavarría said, disinformation is “like pouring rain, and you’re trying to catch it with a bucket…[But] we’re going to play the same game – be persistent. I want people to get tired of hearing the facts!”
The Venezuelan-born journalist-turned-factchecker said his personal journey pushes him forward on the project. “I was a witness to how democracy fell [in Venezuela],” he said. “Disinformation campaigns were a fundamental technique for creating an authoritarian system … [and] the trauma of Venezuela has served to motivate me.”
For media outlets and journalists: If you’re interested in Factchequeado’s training program and/or becoming a media partner, email info@factchequeado.com. More info here.
Thank you so much. This work is crucial and underappreciated, and amplifying the effort is great.