WEBVTT - The Misinformation Web 0:00:01.320 --> 0:00:12.600 Futuro investigates Putioduro Investilla. 0:00:09.640 --> 0:00:14.480 Alexa, who will win the next American election? The twenty 0:00:14.560 --> 0:00:17.880 twenty four American election will not take place. There will 0:00:17.880 --> 0:00:20.560 be no winner, will powers resolution. 0:00:20.640 --> 0:00:26.440 In August of twenty twenty three, a video was shared online, 0:00:26.880 --> 0:00:30.320 and in that video, a white man wearing an army 0:00:30.480 --> 0:00:36.520 green trucker hat asks Alexa, Amazon's AI voice assistant about 0:00:36.520 --> 0:00:41.640 the twenty twenty four election. Alexa seemingly responds that the 0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:47.320 election is not happening. It's a lie, of course. Still, 0:00:47.400 --> 0:00:52.320 soon after, infamous conspiracy theorist Alex Jones decided to share 0:00:52.320 --> 0:00:55.360 the video with the millions of people who visit his 0:00:55.520 --> 0:00:58.360 far right platform info Wars every month. 0:00:58.720 --> 0:01:01.400 So the buzz is out there that there won't be 0:01:01.440 --> 0:01:04.440 a twenty twenty four election. Now, I'm not saying that's 0:01:04.480 --> 0:01:05.039 gonna happen. 0:01:05.160 --> 0:01:09.520 I'm saying we're not in normal situation, and let's play 0:01:09.520 --> 0:01:11.080 the club I just talked about with Alexa. 0:01:12.440 --> 0:01:15.880 And just like that, the video takes off. It soon 0:01:15.920 --> 0:01:17.759 appears on YouTube. 0:01:17.480 --> 0:01:19.520 Alexa, who will win them? 0:01:20.560 --> 0:01:20.680 Who? 0:01:22.280 --> 0:01:22.800 Instagram? 0:01:23.440 --> 0:01:32.360 What's good? Some posts still up have millions of views 0:01:33.160 --> 0:01:34.440 as it's snowballed. 0:01:34.800 --> 0:01:37.240 This video was also shared on one of those weird 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:40.119 Facebook pages with subtitles of Spanish. 0:01:40.160 --> 0:01:44.800 Of course, that's Evelyn Bedezberdia, the founder of We Are mass, 0:01:44.840 --> 0:01:49.600 a consulting firm where she's been focusing on countering disinformation 0:01:50.280 --> 0:01:54.760 like the No. Twenty twenty four election lie. Evelyn first 0:01:54.800 --> 0:01:57.760 came across the Alexa video in late twenty twenty three 0:01:58.240 --> 0:02:02.000 when We Are Muss partnered with Brown University in order 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:06.080 to track election related concerns among Latinos. 0:02:06.320 --> 0:02:08.800 And what we did is we asked them two questions 0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:11.680 for six weeks, what are you hearing in your communities 0:02:12.200 --> 0:02:13.840 and are there any rumors you're hearing? 0:02:14.600 --> 0:02:18.920 Evelyn says. They received over five hundred responses. 0:02:18.400 --> 0:02:22.760 But only twenty percent were rumors. But within that twenty percent, 0:02:23.160 --> 0:02:27.160 there were two people, a nicaragua and American and a 0:02:27.240 --> 0:02:31.480 Venezuelan American that did not know each other, and at 0:02:31.480 --> 0:02:35.160 the same time, both of them were mentioning about Alexa, 0:02:35.240 --> 0:02:37.639 saying that there was not going to be an election 0:02:37.720 --> 0:02:38.639 in twenty twenty. 0:02:38.400 --> 0:02:42.720 Four because that Alexa alex Jones video had moved on 0:02:43.160 --> 0:02:51.560 and it was now targeting Spanish speakers from Futuro Media 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:55.880 and FPRX. It's Latino USA. I'm Maria nor Josa Today 0:02:55.919 --> 0:03:00.760 the Misinformation Web a new Futuro investigation. This story is 0:03:00.840 --> 0:03:04.919 part of our election coverage, The Latino Factor How we Vote. 0:03:05.560 --> 0:03:10.040 With just days left before the presidential election, we meet 0:03:10.040 --> 0:03:14.120 face to face with social media content creators driving miss 0:03:14.320 --> 0:03:18.520 and disinformation in Spanish and we attempt to answer some 0:03:18.639 --> 0:03:22.680 elusive but key questions how much money are they making 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:39.760 off of this? And is anybody funding them? Is influencer? 0:03:39.840 --> 0:03:44.520 Who is Venezuelan? For months, our team at Puturo Investigates 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:48.920 researched digital creators who share political and election content on 0:03:48.960 --> 0:03:53.280 social media in Spanish. In particular, we focused on two 0:03:53.520 --> 0:03:57.400 prolific YouTubers who have been very engaged with you as 0:03:57.440 --> 0:04:00.120 politics in the lead up to the election, and when 0:04:00.280 --> 0:04:04.720 Juan Torris was one of them, John Aquaviva, who also 0:04:04.880 --> 0:04:13.640 happens to be Venezuelan, was the other one. Yes, these 0:04:13.680 --> 0:04:16.880 creators have a combined following of over half a million 0:04:16.920 --> 0:04:21.679 subscribers and counting. Both are very passionate about what's happening 0:04:21.680 --> 0:04:24.800 in the United States, but neither one of them has 0:04:24.880 --> 0:04:31.039 any direct ties to this country. Yes, you heard that right, 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:35.520 and yet despite living outside of the United States and 0:04:35.600 --> 0:04:38.920 not being US citizens and can't even vote in this country, 0:04:39.279 --> 0:04:44.839 their influence and reach is local. In our month long 0:04:44.960 --> 0:04:50.760 research of misinformation in Spanish, we also came upon conspiracies 0:04:50.839 --> 0:04:54.279 about the FBI raid at Donald Trump's Mara A Lago estate, 0:04:54.800 --> 0:04:59.000 lies about Kamala Harris being a Marxist, theories about President 0:04:59.080 --> 0:05:03.599 Joe Biden's decis to not run for reelection. All of 0:05:03.640 --> 0:05:07.760 these narratives originated in English, only to be repurposed soon 0:05:07.800 --> 0:05:12.080 after in Spanish. It's not new that Latinos in the 0:05:12.200 --> 0:05:17.599 US are prime targets of misinformation, particularly in Spanish. After all, 0:05:17.720 --> 0:05:21.840 over forty percent of US consume news in Spanish. What's 0:05:21.920 --> 0:05:26.240 different this election cycle is a growth of both content 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:31.240 creators attracted by the ever expanding Latino market and the 0:05:31.360 --> 0:05:36.839 online platforms themselves. Seventeen percent of US adults now get 0:05:36.960 --> 0:05:41.080 news from TikTok, compared to just three percent in twenty 0:05:41.160 --> 0:05:45.240 twenty and X formerly Twitter has now expanded because it 0:05:45.360 --> 0:05:50.279 pays verified users, and so more users started trying to 0:05:50.360 --> 0:05:54.839 go viral. And going viral is good for business because 0:05:55.080 --> 0:06:00.000 it means more followers, more clicks, and ultimately more money. 0:06:00.320 --> 0:06:03.520 It's hard to know how many creators are putting out 0:06:03.560 --> 0:06:07.360 fake content in this election cycle, Experts have told us 0:06:07.360 --> 0:06:11.760 there simply aren't enough resources dedicated to tracking them all, 0:06:12.160 --> 0:06:17.680 especially in Spanish, so posts en Espanol just live on 0:06:18.120 --> 0:06:22.320 and on and on, fueling a wave of disinformation that 0:06:22.440 --> 0:06:33.800 drowns out the facts and ultimately drowns out the truth. Sadly, 0:06:34.200 --> 0:06:38.520 it's Latinos who are often the ones spreading this content 0:06:38.839 --> 0:06:44.440 to our own communities and sometimes from Afar. Because, dear listener, 0:06:44.760 --> 0:06:48.600 as we dug into how this underworld of misinformation operates 0:06:49.000 --> 0:06:52.800 and who the players are, we actually had to leave 0:06:52.880 --> 0:06:55.840 the United States in order to get the answers. 0:06:56.279 --> 0:07:02.200 Nomre Juan Jose Torres eetra Tango and quarruan Jonlandia as 0:07:02.400 --> 0:07:08.040 Manuel Livia Venezuela Sol. 0:07:07.640 --> 0:07:11.160 Juan Jose Torres Estrada, who goes by Juan Torres on 0:07:11.280 --> 0:07:15.000 his social media, is a twenty four year old Venezuelan 0:07:15.080 --> 0:07:20.600 man who told us he lives in Iceland. Yes you 0:07:20.720 --> 0:07:27.360 heard that right, Iceland. Yet he runs two YouTube channels 0:07:27.400 --> 0:07:31.160 which focus almost entirely on US politics and on the 0:07:31.280 --> 0:07:35.840 US election. His main channel, Venezuela News, has over one 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:39.960 hundred and seventy thousand subscribers, and his political videos started 0:07:40.080 --> 0:07:43.480 in May of twenty twenty three, and that's what really 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:48.840 caught our attention. Why a channel called Venezuela News is 0:07:48.960 --> 0:07:53.880 actually all about us politics. On this video, posted in 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:58.160 early August, Jue tries to paint a dark picture of 0:07:58.280 --> 0:08:11.280 what a Kamala Harris presidency would look like. He says 0:08:11.560 --> 0:08:16.480 she would abolish ice, the fin that she would defund 0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:25.480 the police, con confiscate your arms. The list of lies 0:08:25.920 --> 0:08:34.920 goes on. As we tracked Jue's videos, the question persisted 0:08:35.600 --> 0:08:38.400 why a young Venezuelan who has never lived in the 0:08:38.520 --> 0:08:42.800 United States was so interested in our election, so much 0:08:42.920 --> 0:08:48.200 so to produce and post, according to his account, five, yes, 0:08:48.679 --> 0:08:56.839 five videos about it daily. So we reached out to 0:08:56.920 --> 0:09:00.480 Juan and asked for an interview. He agreed pretty quickly, 0:09:01.000 --> 0:09:02.760 but when we told him that we were willing to 0:09:02.880 --> 0:09:06.280 fly out to Iceland to meet him in person, he refused, 0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:11.160 agreeing only to a virtual interview, and so in early September, 0:09:11.720 --> 0:09:14.160 je joined us from the same place that we see 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:17.520 in most of his videos. The background on his screen 0:09:17.720 --> 0:09:20.640 is blurred, but you can see a kitchen behind him. 0:09:21.080 --> 0:09:24.200 This is like on the kitchen and a studio at 0:09:24.240 --> 0:09:24.800 the same time. 0:09:25.240 --> 0:09:28.880 Purple led lights illuminate the space, and he tells me 0:09:29.480 --> 0:09:32.599 it's his favorite color. He has a round face. He 0:09:32.720 --> 0:09:35.559 has dark hair that's short and neatly trimmed, along with 0:09:35.640 --> 0:09:38.960 the goatee. Today he's wearing a black T shirt, which 0:09:39.080 --> 0:09:41.480 is the casual look that he sports in most of 0:09:41.559 --> 0:09:45.200 his videos. When we asked Juan about how he prepares 0:09:45.280 --> 0:09:48.280 his videos and who are his sources, he gives us 0:09:48.800 --> 0:09:56.800 just one answer. He says, my sources are x aka Twitter. 0:09:58.320 --> 0:10:03.559 Those he METEGO me for my ex Basicamente. 0:10:05.240 --> 0:10:13.640 Del Parsa One said everything is researched by him using 0:10:13.920 --> 0:10:18.280 quote trusted sources from the Republican Party and other accounts 0:10:18.360 --> 0:10:22.319 in English to gather information. But a review of his 0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:26.240 video shows that he often just takes content from an 0:10:26.280 --> 0:10:30.520 ex post in English and simply translates it on screen 0:10:30.800 --> 0:10:34.440 for his audience. So I asked him the question that's 0:10:34.480 --> 0:10:38.360 been on my mind since I first watched his videos. 0:10:39.120 --> 0:10:42.800 Why is a twenty four year old Venezuelan in Iceland 0:10:43.280 --> 0:10:45.160 so invested in the. 0:10:45.360 --> 0:10:50.160 US asser Keeria Guardo. 0:10:51.360 --> 0:11:01.040 Princes Manteezuelauela. 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:04.160 One says he wants to see core principles of the 0:11:04.320 --> 0:11:08.240 GOP transferred to Venezuela. 0:11:08.040 --> 0:11:11.240 Nottoya guard against senor. 0:11:14.400 --> 0:11:17.080 Like not teaching children about gender in. 0:11:17.240 --> 0:11:21.120 Schools deecho de elba. 0:11:20.679 --> 0:11:24.440 And about the right to bear arms. So your entire 0:11:24.640 --> 0:11:27.559 motive for what you are doing is to impact the 0:11:27.640 --> 0:11:33.760 politics of Venezuelamento, to create a new movement in Venezuela 0:11:36.559 --> 0:11:40.000 republic and that that movement is based on the Republican 0:11:40.040 --> 0:11:41.160 Party of the United States. 0:11:41.679 --> 0:11:41.880 See. 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:49.440 We first came across Jue through fact ce Cuiado, which 0:11:49.600 --> 0:11:54.520 is a nonprofit initiative that counters miss and disinformation aimed 0:11:54.520 --> 0:11:57.880 at Spanish speakers in the US. In an article about 0:11:57.880 --> 0:12:01.959 the FBI search of Donald Trump's estate in mar Lago 0:12:02.480 --> 0:12:06.480 in August of twenty twenty two, they used one of 0:12:06.600 --> 0:12:11.840 Juan's videos as a perfect example of misinformation. 0:12:11.520 --> 0:12:23.560 Pimbnido Venezuela news Iberda in fronteas lefmente so lad de la. 0:12:24.880 --> 0:12:29.360 Lagu Earlier this year, Donald Trump twisted the standard language 0:12:29.440 --> 0:12:33.480 in an FBI document about the raid to falsely claim 0:12:33.720 --> 0:12:38.319 that the Biden administration was trying to kill him. This 0:12:38.559 --> 0:12:42.320 claim spread like wildfire. Juan disseminated it. 0:12:42.360 --> 0:12:48.960 Too basicamente and conclusion el de partment cita. I said, 0:12:49.120 --> 0:12:56.319 chuto n Trump ka manera de in citaro al ya 0:12:56.400 --> 0:13:04.680 si e repondre comunic Donald Trump fra primo. 0:13:04.640 --> 0:13:10.000 Jue cites Julie Kelly as his source, calling her a journalist. 0:13:10.679 --> 0:13:15.000 Kelly describes herself on x as a conspiracy theorist and 0:13:15.480 --> 0:13:22.040 insurrection denier. One's loose definition of journalist extends to himself. 0:13:22.679 --> 0:13:27.000 On X he identifies as a quote independent journalist sharing 0:13:27.120 --> 0:13:31.079 true story and free speech. But then he confirmed to 0:13:31.200 --> 0:13:37.000 us that he's never studied journalism. But on Twitter, you 0:13:37.080 --> 0:13:42.520 did call yourself a journalist corrector, Yes, he says he's 0:13:42.600 --> 0:13:47.240 a content creator. Well, content creator and journalist. Do you 0:13:47.280 --> 0:13:51.439 see them as the same thing? No, no, no, no, 0:13:51.679 --> 0:13:54.400 not the same, he tells me. But you did call 0:13:54.480 --> 0:13:57.600 yourself a journalist on X see, but you just said 0:13:57.640 --> 0:14:00.959 you didn't identify yourself as a journalist. One says he 0:14:01.200 --> 0:14:05.120 doesn't have the title, but personally, it's how he identifies. 0:14:05.800 --> 0:14:09.280 He brings up his abilities that, according to him, validate 0:14:09.600 --> 0:14:10.080 his work. 0:14:13.080 --> 0:14:22.560 Mocho potenziang in de de conversation the Politica politicaner, he. 0:14:22.680 --> 0:14:25.960 Says he has quote a lot of potential when it 0:14:26.080 --> 0:14:30.520 comes to discussing politics about the United States, Venezuela, or 0:14:30.840 --> 0:14:35.160 the world. When immigration comes up in our conversation, one 0:14:35.200 --> 0:14:39.720 gets excited and then tries to debate the border with me. 0:14:40.280 --> 0:14:46.680 King hell IoT genoin Porta, No mere del hefedl border 0:14:46.720 --> 0:14:50.760 patrol orgue because the system of what's the problem with 0:14:50.960 --> 0:14:56.280 the border actually is decades in the making. Okay, by 0:14:56.400 --> 0:15:00.880 both Republicans and Democrats. Okay, perfect his story. Okay, but 0:15:01.040 --> 0:15:03.200 I'm not gonna do this one. Hold on, a second, 0:15:03.240 --> 0:15:05.400 hold on, Okay. I love the fact that you're a 0:15:05.400 --> 0:15:08.320 smiling but I'm not No, no, no, no, no. Here's 0:15:08.360 --> 0:15:10.560 the thing. One, I'm not going to get into a 0:15:10.640 --> 0:15:15.520 debate with you about what's happening at the border when 0:15:15.600 --> 0:15:21.520 you're in Iceland. Our team had prepped for these interviews, 0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:25.960 but I hadn't prepped for being confronted by what felt 0:15:26.080 --> 0:15:33.320 like a real, live troll. When I asked one his 0:15:33.480 --> 0:15:37.120 thoughts on the two US presidential candidates, he said he 0:15:37.240 --> 0:15:40.920 doesn't support Kamala Harris or her policies, but that Trump 0:15:41.120 --> 0:15:44.800 goes beyond politics. He has a long history of real 0:15:44.920 --> 0:15:49.520 estate investments, and Trump knows how to deal with tough people, 0:15:49.640 --> 0:15:52.240 he says. So I asked him what he thinks about 0:15:52.320 --> 0:16:00.960 Trump being a convicted felon. He says, those urges, they're 0:16:01.000 --> 0:16:03.880 all lies. When I tell him that it's a fact 0:16:04.280 --> 0:16:08.880 that Donald Trump has been convicted of multiple felonies, Juan says, 0:16:09.240 --> 0:16:14.440 it's all a witch hunt. Ultimately, Donald Trump was found 0:16:14.560 --> 0:16:33.480 guilty by a jury of his peers. Juan tells us 0:16:33.680 --> 0:16:38.000 he lives in Keflavik, Iceland. We tried to confirm this 0:16:38.200 --> 0:16:44.920 location ourselves, but Juan's digital footprint is scarce and pretty puzzling. 0:16:45.520 --> 0:16:48.680 The more we looked into it, the more confusing it was. 0:16:51.880 --> 0:16:56.080 For instance, we found some old Facebook posts that Juan 0:16:56.160 --> 0:17:00.560 had made looking for apartments in Iceland, but across his 0:17:00.680 --> 0:17:05.680 social media accounts he tells a different story. On YouTube, 0:17:06.040 --> 0:17:09.600 his location for his two channels are set to Mexico. 0:17:10.280 --> 0:17:14.680 On x he says he's in the US. In his videos, 0:17:15.080 --> 0:17:18.520 he does talk about moving to Iceland. And then we 0:17:18.640 --> 0:17:21.879 found a clue in an old Facebook post on his 0:17:22.119 --> 0:17:28.240 page for bed Dades Sinfronteas, which is Quan's second YouTube channel. 0:17:28.640 --> 0:17:30.520 When you change something on Facebook, like you change your 0:17:30.560 --> 0:17:32.200 relationship status or your location. 0:17:32.720 --> 0:17:34.520 It'll send it also as a post. 0:17:34.680 --> 0:17:37.280 And so there's a post that just says Vedada Sinfrontea 0:17:37.400 --> 0:17:40.520 updated their address. And so when you click that, it 0:17:40.640 --> 0:17:45.200 takes you to this map on bing and as this 0:17:45.400 --> 0:17:48.479 pin when we're able to determine, okay, it's pointing at 0:17:48.560 --> 0:17:50.520 this building or this structure here. 0:17:51.520 --> 0:17:55.359 When our producer Nor Saudi narrowed down the pin on 0:17:55.560 --> 0:18:00.920 the map, it indicated an address somewhere in direct Florida, 0:18:01.480 --> 0:18:07.119 not Venezuela, not Iceland, not Mexico. But as we zeroed in, 0:18:07.920 --> 0:18:11.800 Nor saw that this wasn't a house, It wasn't even 0:18:11.920 --> 0:18:17.639 an apartment building. It was a warehouse. So we decided 0:18:18.040 --> 0:18:20.280 maybe we should go there to find out if we 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:27.480 could see signs of Juan Torres there seventy nine oh two. 0:18:30.119 --> 0:18:33.040 Here it is seventy nine fifty. Okay, well then stop 0:18:33.080 --> 0:18:34.359 start stops up stuff to. 0:18:34.359 --> 0:18:35.240 See what it's what. 0:18:38.400 --> 0:18:41.760 Coming up on Latino USA. Our quest to find out 0:18:42.000 --> 0:18:46.120 more about the content creators making a living pushing out 0:18:46.280 --> 0:18:50.440 misleading content and lies ends up taking us to some 0:18:50.760 --> 0:19:09.440 unlikely places. That's after the break. Stay with us, not there, yes, hey, 0:19:09.840 --> 0:19:14.480 welcome back. We just heard from Juan Torres, a YouTuber 0:19:14.640 --> 0:19:18.320 from Venezuela who lives in Iceland, or so he claims. 0:19:19.000 --> 0:19:22.040 Before the break. We found a Facebook post from twenty 0:19:22.119 --> 0:19:25.960 twenty one where he listed an address in Miami as 0:19:26.040 --> 0:19:29.840 the location of his page. Now, there was no way 0:19:29.960 --> 0:19:33.879 to verify what this location was or where it was 0:19:34.359 --> 0:19:37.720 and how Juan, who has never lived in the United States, 0:19:38.040 --> 0:19:42.040 was connected to this place unless we went there ourselves. 0:19:44.200 --> 0:19:47.400 So we are in Doral and what we are looking 0:19:47.520 --> 0:19:54.480 for is the address that Juan Torres has put as 0:19:54.840 --> 0:19:59.679 his address in the United States. Definitely, no one lives here. 0:20:00.520 --> 0:20:06.200 This is a warehouse on Logic Express, Corn Logic Express 0:20:06.520 --> 0:20:11.359 Casierro Internacional. In the place where Jue had once listed 0:20:11.600 --> 0:20:15.359 as the address for his YouTube channel. We found a 0:20:15.480 --> 0:20:19.720 shipping service and this particular address was part of a 0:20:19.920 --> 0:20:25.320 maze of one story warehouses behind locked doors, and so 0:20:25.880 --> 0:20:29.200 it felt like we ended up literally in the middle 0:20:29.400 --> 0:20:32.160 of nowhere. So we're gonna try and find a human. 0:20:32.359 --> 0:20:32.720 Here we go. 0:20:37.440 --> 0:20:40.680 On the side walls and in the back were shelves 0:20:40.760 --> 0:20:45.000 where cardboard boxes and other wrap packages were sitting, some 0:20:45.160 --> 0:20:48.240 as big as a refrigerator, and all of these packages 0:20:48.560 --> 0:20:51.600 were getting ready to ship. On the right. When you 0:20:51.680 --> 0:20:55.040 first walk in, there was a small glass window revealing 0:20:55.119 --> 0:20:58.280 an office on the other side. A woman was sitting 0:20:58.320 --> 0:21:01.119 at the desk behind the window. As we explained what 0:21:01.200 --> 0:21:04.480 we were doing there, an older man quickly walked out 0:21:04.720 --> 0:21:05.760 from the small office. 0:21:12.040 --> 0:21:13.159 So I'm not shooting. 0:21:13.720 --> 0:21:16.760 Yeah, yeah, we're looking for a business that said it 0:21:16.880 --> 0:21:18.640 was located in the same address. 0:21:18.880 --> 0:21:20.400 Do you know disaddress? 0:21:20.520 --> 0:21:26.480 Yeah, seventy nine fifty what street that's exactly sixty six? Yeah, yeah, 0:21:26.680 --> 0:21:29.399 we're here for two years, so two years. JUNI. This 0:21:29.560 --> 0:21:32.439 is Diego. He's fifty nine years old with a medium 0:21:32.480 --> 0:21:36.440 build and short gray hair, and like one he is 0:21:36.600 --> 0:21:42.080 also from Venezuela. Diego and his wife run con Logic Express, 0:21:42.520 --> 0:21:47.040 which functions basically like a shipping middleman. So someone in 0:21:47.160 --> 0:21:50.160 Venezuela could buy something from Amazon here in the US. 0:21:50.680 --> 0:21:54.600 Amazon ships it to Diego's warehouse and then they'd prepare 0:21:54.640 --> 0:21:57.680 the packages and give it to a freight forward to ship. 0:21:57.880 --> 0:21:59.119 Do you know who was here before? 0:22:00.280 --> 0:22:00.560 It was? 0:22:00.920 --> 0:22:03.880 It was a transportential company? It was a transport hawk 0:22:04.119 --> 0:22:04.679 Hawk Express. 0:22:05.160 --> 0:22:08.240 Has anybody ever come looking for hre that is in 0:22:08.359 --> 0:22:11.520 front ras or never heard someone by the name of 0:22:11.840 --> 0:22:15.320 Juan Torres. What would you think if I told you 0:22:15.520 --> 0:22:21.879 that there is a YouTube influencer who creates content on 0:22:22.000 --> 0:22:27.640 YouTube aimed at Spanish speakers talking about uh Donald Trump 0:22:27.640 --> 0:22:29.879 and Kamala Harris and then his address said he was 0:22:29.960 --> 0:22:32.120 based here. What what I do? What would you think? 0:22:32.400 --> 0:22:36.800 We showed Diego Jue's YouTube page. One. 0:22:37.000 --> 0:22:39.119 Yeah, all right, so young guy. 0:22:39.400 --> 0:22:42.159 Yeah four, let me see if he is registered with US. 0:22:42.720 --> 0:22:46.600 Diego decides to join us in our investigation as to 0:22:47.080 --> 0:22:50.800 the address that one has used. Now, Diego pulls out 0:22:50.800 --> 0:22:53.920 a black swivel chair and sits down and starts searching 0:22:54.040 --> 0:23:05.600 his database for one. No, one, yeah, this one. 0:23:06.560 --> 0:23:10.720 Yeah, yeah, let's see what I'd say. 0:23:12.400 --> 0:23:12.800 M hmm. 0:23:12.920 --> 0:23:13.160 Okay. 0:23:14.760 --> 0:23:17.680 So he registered with us some time and then twenty 0:23:17.720 --> 0:23:22.000 twenty one and he sent some package to maybe. 0:23:22.840 --> 0:23:25.240 We were able to confirm it was the same Juan 0:23:25.320 --> 0:23:28.720 Torres because the email on the receipt was the same 0:23:28.800 --> 0:23:31.840 one we found in our research for one. That's why 0:23:31.960 --> 0:23:36.960 he's using our words. Oh so it was one way 0:23:37.080 --> 0:23:39.720 to make sense of it, because if one thing was 0:23:39.800 --> 0:23:44.080 for certain, one had never had that address as his own. 0:23:44.560 --> 0:23:47.760 He's not telling the truth. This is not his dress. 0:23:47.800 --> 0:23:50.560 I mean, we are here for two years maybe and 0:23:50.720 --> 0:23:55.560 the people before us it was another company, So when 0:23:56.080 --> 0:23:57.840 is this guy was here when? 0:23:58.720 --> 0:24:03.159 At this point, Diego's Marionilla got very concerned about the 0:24:03.240 --> 0:24:06.080 conversation we were having and she jumped in. 0:24:06.400 --> 0:24:07.440 At cleant Ennesota. 0:24:09.280 --> 0:24:13.520 Marionella is also Venezuelan. She has a medium tan complexion 0:24:13.600 --> 0:24:16.720 and straight brown hair that reaches just past her shoulders. 0:24:17.359 --> 0:24:22.160 When she learns about what was happening, she gets visibly upset. 0:24:25.119 --> 0:24:32.760 Baraka. He says, do you know why I contact that? 0:24:33.640 --> 0:24:36.080 I'll Facebook? ILOs to. 0:24:39.720 --> 0:24:43.600 Marionella begins to get adamant. What if Je gets into 0:24:43.720 --> 0:24:47.680 trouble and they connect him back to them? She tells 0:24:47.760 --> 0:24:50.240 us she's going to contact him on Facebook and tell 0:24:50.359 --> 0:24:54.639 him to remove this address. If he refuses, she says 0:24:55.000 --> 0:25:02.520 she's willing to report him to the police. Diego, on 0:25:02.560 --> 0:25:05.199 the other hand, didn't seem as worried. As far as 0:25:05.240 --> 0:25:07.880 he's concerned, this was all just a way to make 0:25:08.040 --> 0:25:09.400 money from YouTube. 0:25:10.440 --> 0:25:10.960 He's trying to. 0:25:12.600 --> 0:25:17.120 What he's doing, as I can sit here, is making money. 0:25:19.119 --> 0:25:23.920 That During our interview, we did ask Quan straight out 0:25:24.280 --> 0:25:27.720 about the address that he had listed. When we spoke 0:25:27.760 --> 0:25:30.600 to him. He told us matter of factly that he 0:25:30.800 --> 0:25:33.960 needed an address in the US in order to get 0:25:34.119 --> 0:25:35.560 paid for his content. 0:25:36.200 --> 0:25:37.120 I politic. 0:25:38.480 --> 0:25:54.040 Basicament one says he cannot monetize his Facebook content in Iceland, 0:25:54.200 --> 0:25:58.120 which is why he needs a US location. Quan tells 0:25:58.200 --> 0:26:02.040 me this is basically the most logical approach. You have 0:26:02.200 --> 0:26:07.560 to have a US address in order to get paid. Now, 0:26:08.160 --> 0:26:13.280 misrepresenting your location on Meta the owner of Facebook violates 0:26:13.400 --> 0:26:17.639 the company's community standards. It's unclear if que did this 0:26:18.040 --> 0:26:20.760 or if he used the address to make money. In 0:26:20.840 --> 0:26:25.840 any case, despite once declaring a US address on Facebook, one, 0:26:26.160 --> 0:26:30.040 we remind you has never ever lived in the United States, 0:26:30.680 --> 0:26:34.720 and as he told us, YouTube is his full time job. 0:26:35.080 --> 0:26:38.280 It's how he makes all of his money. Now, and 0:26:38.440 --> 0:26:41.040 what's the largest amount of money that you have received. 0:26:41.359 --> 0:26:46.720 Let's say fifteen thousand dollars for one video, no bottle 0:26:46.760 --> 0:26:47.880 miss for one month? 0:26:48.160 --> 0:26:48.440 Okay. 0:26:49.200 --> 0:26:54.080 Depending on which country someone is based in, YouTube, x TikTok, 0:26:54.200 --> 0:26:58.600 and Facebook all offer creators opportunities to make money off 0:26:58.680 --> 0:27:02.840 their content, usually through ad revenue that's based on their 0:27:02.960 --> 0:27:07.400 post's popularity. We reached out to YouTube to ask them 0:27:07.560 --> 0:27:11.920 the size of their Spanish language moderation team. They replied 0:27:12.000 --> 0:27:16.880 saying they have twenty thousand moderators globally quote, including many 0:27:16.920 --> 0:27:24.040 with Spanish language expertise unquote. That's twenty thousand people monitoring 0:27:24.160 --> 0:27:28.280 the over seven hundred and twenty million hours of video 0:27:28.840 --> 0:27:38.320 uploaded to YouTube on a daily basis. A few days 0:27:38.400 --> 0:27:42.399 after we visited Diego and Marinella, the Durrel address had 0:27:42.440 --> 0:27:46.800 been removed from one's profile on Facebook. Diego told us 0:27:46.880 --> 0:27:48.960 that they didn't get to reach out to Juan to 0:27:49.119 --> 0:27:52.280 ask him to delete it, So we tried to ask 0:27:52.359 --> 0:27:55.679 Quan why he was no longer listing the location, then 0:27:55.960 --> 0:27:58.480 why he had used it in the first place, But 0:27:58.600 --> 0:28:02.200 after speaking to us for two hours on video, Juan 0:28:02.440 --> 0:28:06.240 declined a second interview. With our follow ups, we kept 0:28:06.280 --> 0:28:09.600 on trying. We even tried to get answers in writing, 0:28:10.040 --> 0:28:17.000 but again Juan declined to offer any explanation. Still, Juan 0:28:17.320 --> 0:28:20.640 remained a bit of a mystery for me. Maybe it's 0:28:20.680 --> 0:28:24.560 as simple as Diego from the warehouse thought, you know, us, 0:28:24.680 --> 0:28:27.719 politics is just a money grab. Maybe that's why new 0:28:27.800 --> 0:28:30.920 creators like Juan are popping up on the scene. But 0:28:31.119 --> 0:28:35.120 what is their impact on Latinos and Latinas just before 0:28:35.400 --> 0:28:42.240 this presidential election. So after hanging out in remote warehouses 0:28:42.360 --> 0:28:45.640 in the middle of nowhere, our journey to discover more 0:28:45.720 --> 0:28:50.400 about miss and disinformation continued. So we got in our 0:28:50.520 --> 0:28:54.400 car and decided to move towards the Latino and Latina 0:28:54.440 --> 0:28:58.240 neighborhoods of South Florida, one place that has been rampant 0:28:58.440 --> 0:29:02.640 with misinformation in the past elections. That's due to the 0:29:02.760 --> 0:29:06.840 area's high concentration of Cubans and now more and more 0:29:06.880 --> 0:29:11.800 of an Isuelan's because misinformation campaigns aimed at them have 0:29:11.960 --> 0:29:16.240 exploited their fears of socialism and Marxism in order to 0:29:16.360 --> 0:29:28.080 attack Biden before and now to attack Harris. In dorel 0:29:28.560 --> 0:29:33.520 which actually is now referred to as Doral Suela, we 0:29:33.640 --> 0:29:36.360 asked folks on the streets where they were getting their 0:29:36.440 --> 0:29:41.680 news and while a few answered with some traditional news 0:29:41.880 --> 0:29:45.960 sources Fox News and is that your most trusted sources. 0:29:45.840 --> 0:29:48.640 Trust most trusted sources CNN. 0:29:48.880 --> 0:29:53.320 Are, others pointed to social media. Where do you get 0:29:53.360 --> 0:29:54.000 your information? 0:29:57.960 --> 0:30:01.640 I st. 0:30:06.000 --> 0:30:09.000 In Miami. We also met up with Anna Maria Carano 0:30:09.320 --> 0:30:13.120 in fact Check, Ciado's managing editor. Remember this is one 0:30:13.160 --> 0:30:17.560