Univision’s “Agenda Latina” is evergreen, and ever expanding beyond immigration. The network now appears to be joining efforts to impose censorship on social media.
Watch below, as correspondent Lourdes Del Río advocated for “some sort of control” of social media:
LOURDES DEL RÍO: But for now, the president of Facebook has even told Congress that he considers that it is up to the people to decide for themselves what politician or not to vote for. And he went further. He’s not even going to submit ads to a fact checker, or information review, before allowing them on his pages. This has been greatly criticized.
Even so, Twitter’s initiative doesn’t solve every problem because a lot of fake information comes from accounts that are difficult to control.
JUAN CARLOS PEDREIRA: It’s been very difficult for Twitter to control Donald Trump’s account, due to the argument that it is newsworthy. The President of the United States is writing what he thinks, in his own words, and that certainly makes (his feed) very newsworthy.
DEL RÍO: We’ll see whether Facebook and Instagram decide to follow in Twitter’s footsteps. Some sort of control is better than none. In Miami, Florida, Lourdes Del Río, Univision.
To be clear, the whole premise of the piece was to put pressure on Mark Zuckerberg to enact the Twitter ban on political advertising. Why, that Zuckerberg won’t even allow fact-checks of political ads! He thinks the people can decide!
This spectacle was particularly rich, coming from, the network that once ran a Barack Obama campaign press release as a hard news story. Now Univision wants to pretend to be concerned over honest political discourse.
But really, this is about censorship. Univision partnered with Facebook in order to indulge Jorge Ramos’s dream of a broader platform through which he can engage woke Milennials in numbers potentially greater than Fusion’s tens of viewers. By pushing for social media censorship, Univision looks to silence those (like us) who might counterprogram their online offerings.
This was key, given the findings of this Pew Research study, which indicated that Hispanics are about as likely to get their news online as they are on television --- with the online trend in the ascendant. This is about silencing opinions that dissent from the mainstream that Univision wants to portray, both to its audience and to the public at large.
Lourdes Del Río’s totalitarian utterances, given the layers of editing that go into an evening newscast, should bring a chill. In the interest of allegedly defending the rights of its audience, Univision just wants to control what it sees.
Click "Expand" to view the full transcript of the above referenced report, as aired on Univision's Edición Nocturna on Thursday, October 31st, 2019:
Univision's Edición Nocturna
October 31, 2019
11:45 p.m. EasternPATRICIA JANIOT: Twitter has announced a global ban on political advertising on its platform. This corporate decision has been cheered by some and rejected by others, as Lourdes Del Río tells us in her report.
LOURDES DEL RÍO: We all know the impact that social media has in our lives. And the political aspect is no exception. In the face of criticism over the amount of fake news that makes it on to these platforms, Twitter has made a decision that has been shocking to some. Its own president announced it on his account. “We’ve made the decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter globally. We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought.” The president of Twitter explained that online advertising is very powerful and effective, and that’s precisely why it has significant risk as far as politics is concerned, because it can influence millions of voters. The decision has been welcomed by those who fear undue infiltration in the 2020 presidential election, especially since it became known that there was Russian interference in the past election. Now, pressure is upon the real giant as far as political advertising is concerned: Facebook.
JUAN CARLOS PEDREIRA: In the past, Facebook has hidden behind saying that they are merely a technological platform. But the power that Facebook has, with nearly 2 billion users worldwide, places them in a very uncomfortable position as to how they are going to allow this type of disinformation to continue on their social platform.
DEL RÍO: But for now, the president of Facebook has even told Congress that he considers that it is up to the people to decide for themselves what politician or not to vote for. And he went further. He’s not even going to submit ads to a fact checker, or information review, before allowing them on his pages. This has been greatly criticized.
Even so, Twitter’s initiative doesn’t solve every problem because a lot of fake information comes from accounts that are difficult to control.
PEDREIRA: It’s been very difficult for Twitter to control Donald Trump’s account, due to the argument that it is newsworthy. The President of the United States is writing what he thinks, in his own words, and that certainly makes (his feed) very newsworthy.
DEL RÍO: We’ll see whether Facebook and Instagram decide to follow in Twitter’s footsteps. Some sort of control is better than none. In Miami, Florida, Lourdes Del Río, Univision.
