Sexist tropes and misinformation circulate online as Mexico prepares to elect its first female leader

Mexican voters are about to elect their first female president, a cause for celebration for many that has also triggered a flood of false and misogynistic claims online, blurring the lines between fact and fiction.

The two main candidates, both women, had to respond to humiliating attacks on their appearance, their credentials and their ability to lead the nation.

The candidate considered the favorite in Sunday contestformer mayor of Mexico City Claudia Sheinbaum, has also faced insults about her Jewish origins, as well as repeatedly debunking claims that she was born in Hungary. This week, in an apparent attempt to undermine his candidacy, a social media account posing as a legitimate media outlet posted fake, AI-generated audio of Sheinbaum admitting that his campaign was failing in a key Mexican state. .

The wave of electoral misinformation facing voters in Mexico is the latest example of how the Internet, social media and AI are fueling the spread of false, misleading or hateful content in democracies around the world, distorting discourse public and potentially influencing electoral results.

“We have a general atmosphere of disinformation here in Mexico, but it is a little different than what is happening in Indiaor the US,” said Manuel Alejandro Guerrero, communications professor and researcher at the Iberoamerican University in Mexico City.

In the case of Mexico, this misinformation is the result of growing distrust in the media, violence committed by drug cartelsand rapid increases in social media use, coupled with a delay in digital literacy. Guerrero has added yet another contributing factor now familiar to Americans: political leaders Who voluntarily spreading misinformation themselves.

Sheinbaum is a member of the Morena party, led by the current president Andrés Manuel López Obrador. She faces opposition candidate Xóchitl Gálvez and Jorge Álvarez Máynez, from the small Citizen Movement party.

Compared to electoral misinformation spread about male candidates, attacks against Gálvez and Sheinbaum often take on a particularly personal nature and focus on their gender, according to Maria Calderon, a lawyer and researcher from Mexico who works with the Instituto de México, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that studies online politics.

“I was surprised by how cruel the comments could be,” said Calderon, whose analysis found that attacks on female candidates like Sheinbaum and Gálvez typically focus on their appearance, or their credentials, while misinformation about male candidates is more often about political proposals.

“A lot of direct attacks on their weight, their height, the way they dress, the way they behave, the way they talk,” Calderón said.

She suggested that some of the sexism can be attributed to Mexico’s “machismo” culture and strong Catholic roots. Women only received the right to vote in Mexico in 1953.

López Obrador spread some of the false allegations aimed at Gálvez, like he did last year when he mistakenly said she supported plans to end several popular social programs if elected. However, despite her efforts to set the record straight, the narrative continues to dog her campaign, showing how effective political misinformation can be, even if debunked.

Scammers have also gotten into the disinformation business in Mexico, using fake Sheinbaum AI videos in an effort to sell investment scams, for example.

“You’ll see it’s my voice, but it’s a fraud,” Sheinbaum said after a deepfake of her allegedly launching an investment scam went viral.

As they have done in other nations, the technology companies that operate most of the major social media platforms say they have launched a series of programs and policies aimed at blunting the effect of misinformation ahead of the election.

Meta and other US-based tech platforms have been criticized for focusing most of their efforts on disinformation in English while taking action “ Cookie cutter ”Approach to the rest of the globe.

“We are focused on providing reliable election information while combating misinformation in multiple languages,” according to a statement from Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, about its election plans.

O spectrum of violence has haunted the elections since the beginning of the first campaigns. Dozens of candidates for minor positions were killed or kidnapped by criminal gangs. Drug cartels have spread terror before electionsspraying campaign rallies with gunfire, burning ballots and preventing the setting up of polling places.

“This was the most violent election that Mexico has had since we started registering elections,” Calderón said.