Spanish-language misinformation on Los Angeles immigration protests push a familiar theme

Posts using fake images and baseless claims have sought to connect protests to left-wing Latin American governments, similar to misinformation that has swirled around previous news events.
A surge of false or misleading posts, photographs and videos about the Los Angeles protests have been circulating on social media, with many of those shared among Latinos — mostly in Spanish — tying the protesters to socialist or communist governments.
One post on X with over 600,000 views claims that in the U.S., immigration protest groups have links to “the Venezuelan mafia,” the Communist Party of Cuba, and the Morena Party, the left-wing ruling party of Mexico. But the post doesn’t specify any groups and doesn’t give evidence of this.
The narrative echoes similar falsehoods that circulated during the 2020 George Floyd protests and the 2024 pro-Palestinian student protests on university campuses.
Parts of Los Angeles and other cities across the country have seen protests against immigration raids as President Donald Trump’s administration enforces a hard-line immigration policy. Dramatic scenes where cars, including Waymo taxis, were set on fire and protesters confronted law enforcement by throwing objects at them have filled social media feeds.
While some far-left groups have encouraged and even glorified violence in the protests, the onslaught of posts, mostly in Spanish, appears to be an attempt to link protests against immigrant raids to leftist Latin American governments, and the posts show support for President Donald Trump and his policies.
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