House Dems Voice 'Grave and Urgent Concerns' Over Chilean Plebiscite Misinformation
In a letter to Mark Zuckerberg, Parag Agrawal, and Shou Zi Chew--the respective CEOs of Facebook parent company Meta, Twitter, and TikTok--the lawmakers "strongly implore" the social media companies to "act with urgency to combat corrupt disinformation campaigns that undermine a fair and democratic process" in Chile.
"This Sunday, Chileans will decide whether to approve a new constitution or default to the existing version written by the Pinochet dictatorship's military junta," states the letter, which is signed by Reps. Andy Levin (D-Mich.), Cori Bush (D-Mo.), Jesus "Chuy" Garcia, Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), and James McGovern (D-Mass).
The lawmakers were referring to the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, who seized power in a 1973 coup supported by then-President Richard Nixon and successive administrations as well as U.S. business interests.
"In the context of such an important and sensitive democratic process, we believe that technology corporations like yours have an obligation to ensure that their platforms do not serve to disseminate hate, lies, and disinformation across the electorate," the letter continues. "Yet just this week Reuters reported that inaccurate information about Chile's new constitution is widespread."
As Common Dreamsnoted Wednesday, a far-right misinformation campaign--replete with lies that the new constitution would change Chile's flag, national anthem, and even the country's name--could imperil its approval.
The lawmakers' letter laments that "thousands of Twitter profiles regularly circulate patently false claims regarding the new constitution" in "an attempt to delegitimize and discredit" the proposed document.
"Even more troubling, these attacks often use hate speech to target women and Indigenous leaders," the Democrats noted.
"We urge you to act swiftly against the spread of disinformation," they added. "Continued inaction could abet interference in this historic referendum."
Thousands of Chileans took to the streets of the capital city of Santiago on Thursday evening in demonstrations for and against the new constitution, which if passed will enshrine human rights including free universal healthcare, higher education, reproductive freedom, and the rights of nature.
Chile's recently inaugurated leftist president, former student activist Gabriel Boric, supports a new constitution. Nearly four in five Chilean voters voted in favor of the constitutional re-write in a 2020 referendum.
Speaking in favor of the new constitution during a Thursday rally, Gustavo Gatica--who was blinded after being shot in the face during a 2019 Estallido social protest against economic inequality--said, "I approve of all the eyes we lost" during the struggle for Chilean democracy.
