Social media and creators play a big role in how Latinos get news. This makes them – especially Spanish-speaking Latinos – particularly susceptible to mis- and dis-information.
Factchequeado, a fact-checking and media literacy organization that works to help Latinos better navigate things online, teamed up with News Creator Corps, to help bilingual creators ensure they are delivering accurate news to their audiences.
“Sometimes their only source of information are the content creators,” said Olivia Rivarola, social media and production manager at Factchequeado. “It’s a huge responsibility, in a good way, for the content creators to actually produce information that is verified, because Latinos are actually following you and believing you.”
While 87% of Latinos get news at least sometimes from the internet, 56% do so through social media, according to Pew Research Center data shared by Rivarola and Laura Zommer, CEO and co-founder of Factchequeado, during the training. About 30% regularly get news from news creators, the highest share of any group in the U.S., and 65% of those who follow news creators say they help them better understand current events.
“In the English world, you have much more competition,” Zommer said. “There’s not as many people doing serious work for the ones that choose Spanish living in the U.S….Anyone that has the chance to produce some of their content in Spanish, or a new account in Spanish, it makes sense to do it, because there’s a population there that is eager to follow you, and the competition is not enormous, as it is already in English.”
Rivarola and Zommer broke down how bilingual creators can center their audiences and fact-check the information they’re sharing into three phases: Before Recording, During Recording and After Recording. These terms refer to video creators, but the lessons apply no matter the medium.
Factchequeado is also building a platform for creators and media organizations to connect, with potential features like access to reliable information, script creation, video editing and contracts. It’s still deciding which tools would be most helpful and you can weigh in by filling out this five-minute survey to help shape the tool.
Before Recording
Know your audience
Latinos are a large, young audience. About 68 million Latinos live in the U.S. – or one in five people. Their average age is 31 and about two in three were born in the U.S., according to Pew Research Center data shared by Rivarola and Zommer.
It can often be time consuming to be creating all your content in both English and Spanish, so Rivarola recommended being strategic about deciding which language to use in your content.
Overall, 54% of Latinos get their news mostly in English, 23% in both languages equally and 21% mostly in Spanish.
But among U.S.-born Latinos, 81% get news mostly in English, while 41% of immigrants get news mostly in Spanish. About two in three Latinos can read in Spanish, and 63% use Spanglish at least sometimes.
If your audience is mostly newer or older immigrants versus U.S. born Latinos, it’s more important to provide content in Spanish. This is also the case if you have an audience with both, but maybe a piece of content is particularly important for Spanish speakers. Focusing on delivering content in both languages when it’s most essential to your audience can help you manage your bandwidth.
Find good information
Zommer’s first piece of advice may sound obvious, but it’s easy to forget in practice: Don’t believe everything at first glance. When everyone is talking about something, people tend to repeat it. She urged creators to be especially cautious ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections, even when something is trending.
She and Rivarola recommended a few quick habits to verify information that you hear or see online.
- Search Google using the keywords of whatever you’re about to talk about. You may find that a fact-check or other reporting has already addressed it.
- Run a reverse image search. Upload an image to Google by clicking the camera icon in the search box and it will show you where else that image or a similar one has appeared. Reverse image searches are also a good way to catch real images that are being shared out of context.
- If another creator cites a news outlet, go to that outlet and make sure it actually published the report. If a post quotes a politician, check that politician’s own account.
- Look at who is behind the information. Is the person you’re citing an expert on this specific topic? If you’re pulling from a website, does it have an “About Us” page that tells you who runs it? Zommer warned that in the age of AI there are a lot of fake news sites designed to look like media outlets. It also helps to know the reputation of the journalists or experts you cite.
- Diversify your own information diet. Algorithms tend to show us what we already believe. Zommer recommended following people who don’t share your perspective and consuming a variety of news outlets, so you’re better prepared to spot misinformation.
- Know your own biases. Research shows people are worse at spotting misinformation on topics they feel strongly about. Zommer suggested making a list of the topics where you know you’re more likely to let something slide, so you can slow down and be more conscientious about verifying them before talking about them.
Zommer also shared one signal to always watch for: strong emotions. If a piece of content makes you laugh, scared or angry, that’s often by design, she said, and it’s more likely to be misinformation. Take a moment and verify it before you share.
Check whether images and videos were made with AI
When you’re deciding whether to share an image or video, Zommer recommended several ways to ensure the image or video is real.
- Ask who took the image or video or made the image. Look for a photographer, graphic designer or agency credit and add it when you share. Zommer said attributing authorship makes audiences trust an image is real.
- Look at the details. In the past, AI images often had telltale signs like extra fingers, but Zommer said the tools have improved, and your eyes won’t always give you the answer, so don’t rely only on this as a check.
- Use detection tools. Factchequeado recommends Hive Moderation, Deepware, Google DeepMind’s tool and Resemble AI, which Zommer said were the best-working free options as of Oct. 7, 2026 to detect AI images. They give you a percentage chance that content was made with AI. None are 100% accurate, and the landscape can change quickly. But if two tools both return more than an 80% probability, she said, you can tell your audience that the content was likely created with AI. Some AI tools, like Gemini, can also confirm when their own technology generated the content.
- Be transparent if you share AI-generated content anyway. If you decide to use it, say so in your audio or add text that explicitly says “image created with AI” or “video generated with AI.”
Factchequeado publishes a series on its social channels every Monday that helps people spot AI-generated content, and Zommer said creators are welcome to reuse it.
If you’re still unsure about something after all that, Factchequeado has a free chatbot at +1 646-873-6087. It can instantly tell you whether the organization has already fact-checked something, and if it hasn’t, a member of the team will look into it and respond.
During Recording
Separate fact from opinion
Most creators mix facts and opinions in the same video, Zommer said, which can lead to spreading misinformation without meaning to. Making clear what part of content is your opinion and what is fact helps your audience interpret and trust what you’re saying.
Factchequeado breaks down three categories to distinguish to your audience:
- Fact: A verifiable event, action or statement, like “Today is Monday” or “The World Health Organization published a report on mental health in 2025.”
- Opinion: A personal interpretation, belief or judgment, like “In my experience, Mondays are hard.”
- Third-party attribution: When you’re sharing something from an expert, news outlet or another source. It isn’t necessarily a fact or an opinion, but it’s based on someone else’s findings and you should say so.
There are some simple phrases that can help, Rivarola and Zommer said:
- For facts, you can use phrases like:
- “According to [source],…”
- “Data from [source] show that…”
- “It has been verified according to [source] that…”
- If you checked something yourself, explain how. For example, share if you used a Google search or an AI detection tool.
- For opinions, you can use phrases like:
- “In my opinion…”
- “From my point of view…”
- “I believe that…”
If you aren’t sure if something is a fact, but it’s also not your opinion, you can use conditional language like “It could be that…” or “It is possible that…” It’s also okay to say that you don’t know something or that it’s not clear if something is true.
Zommer, who is also a lawyer, explained that this isn’t just good practice for audience trust, but can also protect you legally.
“Opinions are 100% free,” she said. “Facts are not.”
If you share something you haven’t verified, attributing it to a source is the best way to protect yourself, she said.
Some other rules for good attribution:
- Say who said it. “I saw it on social media” isn’t a proper attribution. Name the media outlet, journalist, creator, organization or agency. Zommer said this slows down speculation and strengthens your content.
- Say where they said it, if you can. For example, “@username said…. in their TikTok video on May 4, 2025.” Being specific shows you did your homework.
- Don’t share direct quotes without saying where they came from. They could be false, and you could be contributing to misinformation or even exposing yourself to legal problems.
- If you don’t know the source but still want to share the information, say that you don’t know that something came from a trustworthy source. Zommer suggested using language like “I’m not sure where this comes from, but I think it’s useful for you to know.”
After publishing
What to do if you shared something false
“We are all human beings,” Zommer said. “We can make mistakes.”
The goal isn’t to never get anything wrong, but to know what to do when it happens and be transparent with your audience.
Factchequeado’s advice if you mistakenly share something that’s not accurate:
- Delete the content and explain why you removed it in a story or a new post.
- Don’t just add a comment or edit the caption. If the original content is still visible, you’re still spreading it and not everyone reads the comments. Zommer added that if you were ever in a liability case, leaving the content up could be used against you.
- Don’t post a new video saying the old one was false without deleting the original. The original is likely to have a lot more views than the correction.
- Avoid pointing to where the false content came from. Linking to or naming the account that first shared it often sends it more traffic, further spreading the misinformation and potentially helping them earn money off of it. If you feel you need to show it, take a screenshot, but leave out the account name.
News Creator Corps also recently published a helpful guide on how to correct a mistake when you work in public.
Rivarola emphasized that none of this is about limiting what creators can say.
“You have the right to share your opinion,” she said, but you also have the opportunity to “communicate responsibly.” With a few extra steps, she said, creators can keep being authentic without amplifying misinformation.
Here are the slides shared during the webinar in English and in Spanish for additional information.
Para más información, aquí están las diapositivas compartidas durante el webinar en inglés y en español.