vox--2020-11-19--How fake news aimed at Latinos thrives on social media

One of the big surprises of the 2020 election was how even though most Latino voters across the US voted for Joe Biden , in some counties of competitive states like Florida and Texas , a higher than expected percentage of Latinos supported Donald Trump .
One factor that many believe played a role : online misinformation about the Democratic candidate .
It ’ s still too early to know exactly why these voters favored Trump , a candidate who made demonizing Latino immigrants a cornerstone of his campaign and administration .
For one , Latinos in the US are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people who represent more than 15 origin countries and encompass a range of generational , socioeconomic , and religious identities .
And we ’ re still waiting for more complete demographic data on voter turnout .
But Democrats are increasingly worried about the influence of misinformation on social media aimed at Latino voters in the runup to the election .
The misleading narratives continue to spread on platforms like Facebook and Twitter , as well as in closed chat groups like WhatsApp and Telegram , in addition to the more traditional platforms like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ coming directly from elected officials .
Several misinformation researchers told Recode that they ’ re seeing alarming amounts of misinformation about voter fraud and Democratic leaders being shared in Latino social media communities .
Biden is a popular target , with misinformation ranging from exaggerated claims that he embraces Fidel Castro-style socialism to more patently false and outlandish ones , for instance that the president-elect supports abortion minutes before a child ’ s birth or that he orchestrated a caravan of Cuban immigrants to infiltrate the US Southern border and disrupt the election @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seen during this election looks to be a multifaceted misinformation effort seeking to undermine Biden and Harris ’ s support amongst the Latino community , ” said Sam Woolley , a misinformation and propaganda researcher at the University of Texas Austin .
“ I think that political groups understand that the Latino vote matters and they are showing they are willing to use any and all informational tactics to get what they want.
” Democratic strategists looking ahead to the 2022 midterm elections are concerned about how this might sway Latino voters in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in traditional media and the political establishment have pushed false narratives as well , but say that social media misinformation deserves special attention : It appears to be a growing problem , and it can be hard to track and understand .
Timothy Durigan , a security analyst for the Democratic National Committee , said that while Democrats “ survived ” the threat of misinformation this cycle , there hasn ’ t been the kind of structural change from social media companies that would prevent such viral misinformation from continuing to spread .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ violates social media policies , and the organization promotes counter-messaging against viral conspiracies .
But the volume of misinformation is overwhelming .
“ We ’ re limited in what we ’ re able to do , ” Durigan said .
Some of the misleading messages — like that Biden is a radical socialist — aren ’ t uniquely aimed at the Latino community ; Trump often made this claim during his campaign .
But these comparisons take on a new intensity with some immigrants from countries like Cuba or Venezuela who have lived @ @ @ @ @ @ @ opposed to them .
And they may be more likely to believe a message shared by friends , family members , or people from their cultural community in a WhatsApp or Telegram group rather than an arbitrary mainstream US news outlet ; research has found that people believe news articles more when they ’ re shared by people they trust .
“ What we ’ re worried about moving forward is that many of these groups and influencers aren ’ t necessarily going to stop sharing misinformation , but will move into platforms @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , which is going to make it much more difficult to monitor , ” said Flavia Colangelo , a researcher at GQR , a research firm that advises Democratic campaigns on Spanish-language disinformation .
Politicians and social media researchers are still working on the full post-mortem of what happened in the 2020 election with Latino voters , but they ’ re already finding clear takeaways about what kinds of viral misinformation spreads , how it gains traction , and what companies like Facebook , YouTube , and Twitter can do to minimize its @ @ @ @ @ @ @ so .
One of the most pervasive themes of the misinformation targeting Spanish-speaking communities in the US during the election is the false idea that Joe Biden is a radical socialist , along the lines of the late Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro or late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez .
Biden has repeatedly disavowed socialism and is in fact criticized by some progressive Democrats for being too centrist .
Other misleading narratives attack Democrats ’ stances on religious freedom , abortion , and race relations .
The Trump campaign itself has targeted Latino @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ads on Facebook , YouTube , and Spanish-language TV stations in states like Florida and Arizona promoting this message of Biden ’ s “ extremism.
” “ Socialist Joe Biden has embraced the extremist politics of the left .
Don ’ t let his radical politics be implemented in our grand country .
Learn more about his progressive ideas , ” reads a translation of one Spanish-language Facebook ad run by the Trump campaign , which ran in the months ahead of the election .
That specific Facebook ad had between 1.6 million @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and cost the Trump campaign over $ 26,000 , according to data compiled about political ads on Facebook from July 1 until November 3 by Laura Edelson , a researcher at the NYU School of Engineering ’ s Ad Observatory project , which tracks Facebook ads .
On Facebook and YouTube , making a claim like “ Biden is an extreme socialist ” isn ’ t a violation of their policies .
What the platforms ban is misleading content about voting , as well as content linked to harmful conspiracy theories like QAnon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ YouTube removed a popular Spanish-language channel that was promoting QAnon conspiracies , as well as a political video containing coronavirus misinformation . )
Misinformation spreading in Latino communities wasn ’ t a problem for Democrats just in the presidential campaign , it cropped up in congressional races , too .
Democratic House Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell , a first-generation Latina who lost her Florida reelection campaign , has publicly blamed a “ targeted disinformation campaign to Latinos ” as one of the main reasons for her loss .
“ Not only did House Republicans @ @ @ @ @ @ @ disinformation that targeted Hispanic and Latino voters , but they shamelessly embraced that disinformation as a central pillar in their 2020 campaign strategy , ” said Benjamin Block , a digital rapid response director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee .
And political ads were only one part of these misinformation campaigns .
Researchers say a growing network of Spanish-language political news influencers , including Aliesky Rodriguez , Eduardo Menoni , and John Acquaviva , have built devoted followings on social media through US political commentary oriented to a Latino audience — much @ @ @ @ @ @ @ narratives .
Such influencers often start on YouTube or Facebook and then carry on the conversation in private WhatsApp and Telegram group chats , many of which have tens of thousands of members who post thousands of messages a day .
These private chats are also more difficult for fact-checkers to monitor .
“ It ’ s rare that we see such a sort of emergence of parallel conversations amongst multiple social media groups like WhatsApp , and social media sites in one specific region , ” said Woolley .
One prominent Florida-based @ @ @ @ @ @ @ YouTube videos rack up hundreds of thousands of views , went so far as to falsely claim that Democrats were going to send a caravan of Cuban immigrants to storm the US border to disrupt the election .
He also made a video announcing a “ lista roja ” ( red list ) he planned to give to Trump , naming Cubans living in the US who Otaola baselessly asserted were Castro loyalists planning to subvert Trump ’ s presidency .
Less than a month before the election , Otaola landed a visit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ list to the president in person .
A spokesperson for YouTube told Recode that Otaola ’ s caravan video does not violate its policies .
“ As we announced a few months ago , our deceptive practices policy prohibits misleading viewers about how to vote : for example , content aiming to mislead voters about the time , place , means , or eligibility requirements for voting .
Expressing views on the outcome of a current election or process of counting votes is allowed under our policy.
” Another prevalent theme in many @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that Biden isn ’ t a “ real ” Catholic .
As NBC News has reported , one of the lies used to bolster this claim is that Biden is in favor of abortion minutes before a scheduled birth .
Even though Latinos identify with various ideologies and religions , a majority — around 55 percent — of Latino Americans identified as Catholic in a 2013 Pew poll .
“ When Latinx people see this content , they think , ‘ that ’ s a compatriot , I ’ m going to trust @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , an investigative researcher focusing on Spanish-language disinformation with the research nonprofit First Draft News .
“ It feels like a huge oversight for me that these platforms have allowed all this misinformation to keep spreading.
” Another tactic these campaigns employ is exploiting racial tensions in Latino communities — in many cases , to align the Black Lives Matter movement with anarchy and anti-Latino prejudice .
These tactics ramped up in the summer as images of protests broke out across the country for racial justice this summer in the wake of police @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and other Democrats have largely been supportive of this movement , although Biden has not backed some activists ’ calls to defund the police . )
“ In my research , one of the first things I noticed is a lot of content online whose sole purpose was to antagonize Latinx people against Black people , ” Longoria said .
In one viral video that was posted in several Latino social media communities , a group of Black protesters is seen insulting migrant Latino workers at a construction site in Washington , DC @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , posted on an entertainment blog , read , “ Protesters tell Mexican workers to stop stealing your jobs , ” according to DCist .
Another video seemingly aimed at pitting Latinos against Black people showed a Black woman disrupting a Latino child ’ s birthday party .
The woman disrupting the party was falsely linked to the Black Lives Matter movement in a caption posted by the Facebook page “ Infodemik.
” Facebook flagged the video as false after an investigation by its third-party fact-checkers , but one instance of the video @ @ @ @ @ @ @ comments on the platform .
These kinds of tactics can have a real impact on their targeted audience .
Saiph Savage , who researches misinformation at the National Autonomous University of Mexico ’ s Civic Tech Lab , said there is a “ data void ” in the Latino community for Spanish-language news about US politics .
There are only two major Spanish-language broadcast news networks in the US : Univision and Telemundo .
This leaves room for media operations — not just on the internet , but also via local radio channels @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Savage said .
And increasingly , some members of the Latino community feel that the major Spanish-language networks are biased against conservatives , perpetuated in part , Savage and Longoria said , by viral conspiracy theories spread online — including the unproven accusation that star Univision anchor Jorge Ramos is working on behalf of the Democratic Party .
Looking ahead to 2022 , Democrats are worried Though the 2020 election is over , misinformation about it continues to spread on social media .
Some Latino American online influencers are promoting conspiracy theories @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with widely debunked claims Trump has been making — comparing unproven corruption in the US election to countries such as Venezuela and Cuba .
In a YouTube live video posted last week with over 40,000 views , three popular Latino social media influencers warned viewers about a California woman claiming that her dog was sent a mail-in ballot , as an example of mass voter fraud — despite the fact that the anecdote has been widely discredited .
“ You don ’ t even see this in the tyrannical , communist dictatorship of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , a popular Venezuelan social media personality who now lives in Colombia , according to his Facebook page , in the video .
As Democrats face a weaker House majority than anticipated , which could erode further in 2022 , they worry about the continued threat of misinformation like this influencing a key voting bloc .
Party officials from the Democratic Campaign Congressional Committee ( DCCC ) and the DNC are calling on social companies like Facebook , YouTube , and Twitter to do a better job moderating their platforms .
“ The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ disinformation , but that work can not fall on the shoulders of campaigns and party committees alone , ” said Block , who heads up the DCCC ’ s disinformation research efforts .
“ Social media companies must step up to the plate and combat organic disinformation to protect voters who use their platforms.
” The DNC ’ s Durigan told Recode that Facebook ’ s WhatsApp messaging software , which Latinos use more compared to any other ethnic or racial group in the US , is a particular area of concern for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ kind of inherently problematic , ” Durigan said .
“ They have marketed pretty aggressively their encrypted communication software with capability for fairly large group conversation and easy forwarding.
” A spokesperson for Facebook said that the company takes Spanish-language misinformation seriously .
Ahead of the 2020 election , the company added two new US-fact-checking partners who review content in Spanish on Facebook and Instagram .
It also put a Spanish-language version of a chatbot in WhatsApp to answer people ’ s questions about the election , as well as a Spanish-language version @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Instagram .
Facebook also limits people from spreading a message to five people or groups at a time in order to limit the spread of viral misinformation , and in April it took further steps to limit viral claims to only being forwarded to one chat or group at a time .
But several Democratic operatives said that new policies still don ’ t go far enough , and that the company should be doing more to limit and fact-check viral false claims within the app .
But as social media companies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about viral Spanish-language misinformation , Republicans continue to accuse tech companies of censoring conservative views when they more aggressively enforce their rules around political misinformation .
This puts companies like Facebook , Twitter , and YouTube in a political tug-of-war over how legislators on opposite sides of the aisle think they should be running their companies .
At the same time , the Democratic Party has been called on to take accountability for its own failings to combat false narratives .
Several party operatives told Recode that in order to combat viral disinformation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ needs to increase its efforts to reach Latino voters on the ground , specifically in states such as Florida and Texas .
In Arizona , Democrats effectively worked with local Latino progressive groups to do grassroots door-to-door outreach , which Colangelo believes helped minimize the impact of viral misinformation to some extent .
“ Countering disinformation online requires offline trust-building , ” Colangelo said .
“ It ’ s introducing the candidate early and saying , ‘ Here ’ s the Democratic Party , here ’ s what we stand for , here @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for your community , and here ’ s what we plan to do next.
’ So when someone comes in and says , ‘ this candidate is a socialist and they ’ re going to raise your taxes ’ — voters already know that ’ s not true .
”

One of the big surprises of the 2020 election was how even though most Latino voters across the US voted for Joe Biden, in some counties of competitive states like Florida and Texas, a higher-than-expected percentage of Latinos supported Donald Trump. One factor that many believe played a role: online misinformation about the Democratic candidate.
It’s still too early to know exactly why these voters favored Trump, a candidate who made demonizing Latino immigrants a cornerstone of his campaign and administration. For one, Latinos in the US are a diverse group of almost 60 million people who represent more than 15 origin countries and encompass a range of generational, socioeconomic, and religious identities. And we’re still waiting for more complete demographic data on voter turnout.
But Democrats are increasingly worried about the influence of misinformation on social media aimed at Latino voters in the runup to the election. The misleading narratives continue to spread on platforms like Facebook and Twitter, as well as in closed chat groups like WhatsApp and Telegram, in addition to the more traditional platforms like television, radio, and talking points coming directly from elected officials.
Several misinformation researchers told Recode that they’re seeing alarming amounts of misinformation about voter fraud and Democratic leaders being shared in Latino social media communities. Biden is a popular target, with misinformation ranging from exaggerated claims that he embraces Fidel Castro-style socialism to more patently false and outlandish ones, for instance that the president-elect supports abortion minutes before a child’s birth or that he orchestrated a caravan of Cuban immigrants to infiltrate the US Southern border and disrupt the election process.
“What I’ve seen during this election looks to be a multifaceted misinformation effort seeking to undermine Biden and Harris’s support amongst the Latino community,” said Sam Woolley, a misinformation and propaganda researcher at the University of Texas Austin. “I think that political groups understand that the Latino vote matters and they are showing they are willing to use any and all informational tactics to get what they want.”
Democratic strategists looking ahead to the 2022 midterm elections are concerned about how this might sway Latino voters in the future. They acknowledge that conservatives in traditional media and the political establishment have pushed false narratives as well, but say that social media misinformation deserves special attention: It appears to be a growing problem, and it can be hard to track and understand.
Timothy Durigan, a security analyst for the Democratic National Committee, said that while Democrats “survived” the threat of misinformation this cycle, there hasn’t been the kind of structural change from social media companies that would prevent such viral misinformation from continuing to spread.
The DNC regularly flags content it believes violates social media policies, and the organization promotes counter-messaging against viral conspiracies. But the volume of misinformation is overwhelming.
“We’re limited in what we’re able to do,” Durigan said.
Some of the misleading messages — like that Biden is a radical socialist — aren’t uniquely aimed at the Latino community; Trump often made this claim during his campaign. But these comparisons take on a new intensity with some immigrants from countries like Cuba or Venezuela who have lived under socialist governments and may be deeply opposed to them.
And they may be more likely to believe a message shared by friends, family members, or people from their cultural community in a WhatsApp or Telegram group rather than an arbitrary mainstream US news outlet; research has found that people believe news articles more when they’re shared by people they trust.
“What we’re worried about moving forward is that many of these groups and influencers aren’t necessarily going to stop sharing misinformation, but will move into platforms like Parler, WhatsApp, and Telegram, which is going to make it much more difficult to monitor,” said Flavia Colangelo, a researcher at GQR, a research firm that advises Democratic campaigns on Spanish-language disinformation.
Politicians and social media researchers are still working on the full post-mortem of what happened in the 2020 election with Latino voters, but they’re already finding clear takeaways about what kinds of viral misinformation spreads, how it gains traction, and what companies like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter can do to minimize its impact — if they decide to do so.
Misleading narratives on socialism, abortion, and racial tensions
One of the most pervasive themes of the misinformation targeting Spanish-speaking communities in the US during the election is the false idea that Joe Biden is a radical socialist, along the lines of the late Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro or late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. Biden has repeatedly disavowed socialism and is in fact criticized by some progressive Democrats for being too centrist. Other misleading narratives attack Democrats’ stances on religious freedom, abortion, and race relations.
The Trump campaign itself has targeted Latino voters with this message, running Spanish-language ads on Facebook, YouTube, and Spanish-language TV stations in states like Florida and Arizona promoting this message of Biden’s “extremism.”
“Socialist Joe Biden has embraced the extremist politics of the left. Don’t let his radical politics be implemented in our grand country. Learn more about his progressive ideas,” reads a translation of one Spanish-language Facebook ad run by the Trump campaign, which ran in the months ahead of the election.
That specific Facebook ad had between 1.6 million and 1.9 million impressions on the platform and cost the Trump campaign over $26,000, according to data compiled about political ads on Facebook from July 1 until November 3 by Laura Edelson, a researcher at the NYU School of Engineering’s Ad Observatory project, which tracks Facebook ads.
On Facebook and YouTube, making a claim like “Biden is an extreme socialist” isn’t a violation of their policies. What the platforms ban is misleading content about voting, as well as content linked to harmful conspiracy theories like QAnon. (After Recode provided examples, YouTube removed a popular Spanish-language channel that was promoting QAnon conspiracies, as well as a political video containing coronavirus misinformation.)
Misinformation spreading in Latino communities wasn’t a problem for Democrats just in the presidential campaign, it cropped up in congressional races, too. Democratic House Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a first-generation Latina who lost her Florida reelection campaign, has publicly blamed a “targeted disinformation campaign to Latinos” as one of the main reasons for her loss.
“Not only did House Republicans benefit at the ballot box from harmful disinformation that targeted Hispanic and Latino voters, but they shamelessly embraced that disinformation as a central pillar in their 2020 campaign strategy,” said Benjamin Block, a digital rapid response director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
And political ads were only one part of these misinformation campaigns. Researchers say a growing network of Spanish-language political news influencers, including Aliesky Rodriguez, Eduardo Menoni, and John Acquaviva, have built devoted followings on social media through US political commentary oriented to a Latino audience — much of it rife with misinformation or misleading narratives.
Such influencers often start on YouTube or Facebook and then carry on the conversation in private WhatsApp and Telegram group chats, many of which have tens of thousands of members who post thousands of messages a day. These private chats are also more difficult for fact-checkers to monitor.
“It’s rare that we see such a sort of emergence of parallel conversations amongst multiple social media groups like WhatsApp, and social media sites in one specific region,” said Woolley.
One prominent Florida-based Cuban-American personality, Alex Otaola, whose YouTube videos rack up hundreds of thousands of views, went so far as to falsely claim that Democrats were going to send a caravan of Cuban immigrants to storm the US border to disrupt the election. He also made a video announcing a “lista roja” (red list) he planned to give to Trump, naming Cubans living in the US who Otaola baselessly asserted were Castro loyalists planning to subvert Trump’s presidency. Less than a month before the election, Otaola landed a visit with Trump, where he delivered the list to the president in person.
A spokesperson for YouTube told Recode that Otaola’s caravan video does not violate its policies.
“As we announced a few months ago, our deceptive practices policy prohibits misleading viewers about how to vote: for example, content aiming to mislead voters about the time, place, means, or eligibility requirements for voting. Expressing views on the outcome of a current election or process of counting votes is allowed under our policy.”
Another prevalent theme in many Spanish-language social media groups is the idea that Biden isn’t a “real” Catholic. As NBC News has reported, one of the lies used to bolster this claim is that Biden is in favor of abortion minutes before a scheduled birth. Even though Latinos identify with various ideologies and religions, a majority — around 55 percent — of Latino Americans identified as Catholic in a 2013 Pew poll.
“When Latinx people see this content, they think, ‘that’s a compatriot, I’m going to trust them,’” said Jaime Longoria, an investigative researcher focusing on Spanish-language disinformation with the research nonprofit First Draft News. “It feels like a huge oversight for me that these platforms have allowed all this misinformation to keep spreading.”
Another tactic these campaigns employ is exploiting racial tensions in Latino communities — in many cases, to align the Black Lives Matter movement with anarchy and anti-Latino prejudice. These tactics ramped up in the summer as images of protests broke out across the country for racial justice this summer in the wake of police killings of Black people. (Biden and other Democrats have largely been supportive of this movement, although Biden has not backed some activists’ calls to defund the police.)
“In my research, one of the first things I noticed is a lot of content online whose sole purpose was to antagonize Latinx people against Black people,” Longoria said.
In one viral video that was posted in several Latino social media communities, a group of Black protesters is seen insulting migrant Latino workers at a construction site in Washington, DC. A caption for the original video, posted on an entertainment blog, read, “Protesters tell Mexican workers to stop stealing your jobs,” according to DCist.
Another video seemingly aimed at pitting Latinos against Black people showed a Black woman disrupting a Latino child’s birthday party. The woman disrupting the party was falsely linked to the Black Lives Matter movement in a caption posted by the Facebook page “Infodemik.” Facebook flagged the video as false after an investigation by its third-party fact-checkers, but one instance of the video alone has some 180,000 shares and 77,000 comments on the platform.
These kinds of tactics can have a real impact on their targeted audience. Saiph Savage, who researches misinformation at the National Autonomous University of Mexico’s Civic Tech Lab, said there is a “data void” in the Latino community for Spanish-language news about US politics. There are only two major Spanish-language broadcast news networks in the US: Univision and Telemundo. This leaves room for media operations — not just on the internet, but also via local radio channels and newspapers — to spread less-accurate reporting, Savage said.
And increasingly, some members of the Latino community feel that the major Spanish-language networks are biased against conservatives, perpetuated in part, Savage and Longoria said, by viral conspiracy theories spread online — including the unproven accusation that star Univision anchor Jorge Ramos is working on behalf of the Democratic Party.
Looking ahead to 2022, Democrats are worried
Though the 2020 election is over, misinformation about it continues to spread on social media. Some Latino American online influencers are promoting conspiracy theories about voter fraud — many in line with widely debunked claims Trump has been making — comparing unproven corruption in the US election to countries such as Venezuela and Cuba.
In a YouTube live video posted last week with over 40,000 views, three popular Latino social media influencers warned viewers about a California woman claiming that her dog was sent a mail-in ballot, as an example of mass voter fraud — despite the fact that the anecdote has been widely discredited.
“You don’t even see this in the tyrannical, communist dictatorship of Nicolas Maduro,” said Eduardo Menoni, a popular Venezuelan social media personality who now lives in Colombia, according to his Facebook page, in the video.
As Democrats face a weaker House majority than anticipated, which could erode further in 2022, they worry about the continued threat of misinformation like this influencing a key voting bloc.
Party officials from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and the DNC are calling on social companies like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter to do a better job moderating their platforms.
“The DCCC took on the threat of organic disinformation, but that work cannot fall on the shoulders of campaigns and party committees alone,” said Block, who heads up the DCCC’s disinformation research efforts. “Social media companies must step up to the plate and combat organic disinformation to protect voters who use their platforms.”
The DNC’s Durigan told Recode that Facebook’s WhatsApp messaging software, which Latinos use more compared to any other ethnic or racial group in the US, is a particular area of concern for the party.
“That product is kind of inherently problematic,” Durigan said. “They have marketed pretty aggressively their encrypted communication software with capability for fairly large group conversation and easy forwarding.”
A spokesperson for Facebook said that the company takes Spanish-language misinformation seriously. Ahead of the 2020 election, the company added two new US-fact-checking partners who review content in Spanish on Facebook and Instagram. It also put a Spanish-language version of a chatbot in WhatsApp to answer people’s questions about the election, as well as a Spanish-language version of its voting information center on Facebook and Instagram.
Facebook also limits people from spreading a message to five people or groups at a time in order to limit the spread of viral misinformation, and in April it took further steps to limit viral claims to only being forwarded to one chat or group at a time. But several Democratic operatives said that new policies still don’t go far enough, and that the company should be doing more to limit and fact-check viral false claims within the app.
But as social media companies face pressure from Democrats to do more about viral Spanish-language misinformation, Republicans continue to accuse tech companies of censoring conservative views when they more aggressively enforce their rules around political misinformation. This puts companies like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube in a political tug-of-war over how legislators on opposite sides of the aisle think they should be running their companies.
At the same time, the Democratic Party has been called on to take accountability for its own failings to combat false narratives. Several party operatives told Recode that in order to combat viral disinformation on social media, the party also needs to increase its efforts to reach Latino voters on the ground, specifically in states such as Florida and Texas. In Arizona, Democrats effectively worked with local Latino progressive groups to do grassroots door-to-door outreach, which Colangelo believes helped minimize the impact of viral misinformation to some extent.
“Countering disinformation online requires offline trust-building,” Colangelo said. “It’s introducing the candidate early and saying, ‘Here’s the Democratic Party, here’s what we stand for, here’s what we’ve done for your community, and here’s what we plan to do next.’ So when someone comes in and says, ‘this candidate is a socialist and they’re going to raise your taxes’ — voters already know that’s not true.”


vox--2020-11-19--Spotify has 300 million users. It wants more of them to listen to podcasts.

Uncovering and explaining how our digital world is changing — and changing us .
Spotify wants to own the podcasting space , and it ’ s made that clear with a series of high-profile acquisitions and deals over the past two years — including the Ringer , Gimlet , Joe Rogan , and , most recently , Megaphone .
Its next goal : get more of its 300 million users to start listening to podcasts .
Peter Kafka talked to Gimlet Media ’ s new head of content , Lydia Polgreen , about how she plans to achieve that at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ Our goal is to get people into the habit of listening to content on Spotify that ’ s not music , ” Polgreen said .
While the growth of podcasts has been strong , it ’ s still a tiny fraction of overall listening for the service .
She pointed to the latest Edison research that podcasting hit an all-time high in 2020 , now accounting for a 6 percent share of audio consumption in the United States .
To that end , Gimlet is experimenting with mixed media extensions of podcasts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and it ’ s leveraging Spotify ’ s robust predictive algorithm to feed music listeners shortform spoken content in the Daily Drive , its recommendation service .
“ Just as Spotify helped people discover the best music for them — it didn ’ t just know what you liked , but it was able to predict what you might like , ” Polgreen said .
“ There ’ s a lot of really fascinating work going on at the company that ’ s trying to solve this problem for spoken word audio @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this looks a lot like traditional FM radio .
Last month , Gimlet Media launched The Get Up , a morning show that mixes daily news and talk with Spotify ’ s personalized music recommendations — “ that special sauce Spotify has with music , ” said Polgreen .
Deciding to reinvent the drive-time radio show during a pandemic , when a large share of would-be commuters are homebound , doesn ’ t seem like great timing .
But according to Polgreen , half a million people have tuned in so far .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ listenership is back to where it was pre-pandemic .
Polgreen also told Kafka some of her other ideas for audio : a daily shortform soap opera-style fiction podcast , and a weekly , appointment-listening documentary show .
“ We ’ ve yet to see a show that ’ s become the 60 Minutes for audio , ” she said .
Watch Kafka ’ s full interview with Lydia Polgreen above to hear more about her vision for podcasting at Spotify , why she left a long career at the New York Times to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and her thoughts on Joe Rogan ’ s interview controversies .

Spotify wants to own the podcasting space, and it’s made that clear with a series of high-profile acquisitions and deals over the past two years — including the Ringer, Gimlet, Joe Rogan, and, most recently, Megaphone. Its next goal: get more of its 300 million users to start listening to podcasts.
Peter Kafka talked to Gimlet Media’s new head of content, Lydia Polgreen, about how she plans to achieve that at the Code Media@Home series.
“Our goal is to get people into the habit of listening to content on Spotify that’s not music,” Polgreen said. While the growth of podcasts has been strong, it’s still a tiny fraction of overall listening for the service. She pointed to the latest Edison research that podcasting hit an all-time high in 2020, now accounting for a 6 percent share of audio consumption in the United States.
To that end, Gimlet is experimenting with mixed media extensions of podcasts, like vodcasting (video podcasting), and it’s leveraging Spotify’s robust predictive algorithm to feed music listeners shortform spoken content in the Daily Drive, its recommendation service.
“Just as Spotify helped people discover the best music for them — it didn’t just know what you liked, but it was able to predict what you might like,” Polgreen said. “There’s a lot of really fascinating work going on at the company that’s trying to solve this problem for spoken word audio too.”
The most recent iteration of this looks a lot like traditional FM radio. Last month, Gimlet Media launched The Get Up, a morning show that mixes daily news and talk with Spotify’s personalized music recommendations — “that special sauce Spotify has with music,” said Polgreen.
Deciding to reinvent the drive-time radio show during a pandemic, when a large share of would-be commuters are homebound, doesn’t seem like great timing. But according to Polgreen, half a million people have tuned in so far. And after an initial dip, Gimlet listenership is back to where it was pre-pandemic.
Polgreen also told Kafka some of her other ideas for audio: a daily shortform soap opera-style fiction podcast, and a weekly, appointment-listening documentary show. “We’ve yet to see a show that’s become the 60 Minutes for audio,” she said.
Watch Kafka’s full interview with Lydia Polgreen above to hear more about her vision for podcasting at Spotify, why she left a long career at the New York Times to join HuffPost after the 2016 election, and her thoughts on Joe Rogan’s interview controversies.


vox--2020-11-19--One of the few Black C-suite execs in tech is starting a firm to invest in Black, Latinx, and women

One of the few Black C-suite execs in tech is starting a firm to invest in Black, Latinx, and women entrepreneurs

Mike Smith is a versatile and well-respected executive in the e-commerce industry .
He also happens to one of the few Black C-level leaders in tech .
Now he wants to play a bigger role in changing that .
Smith has served as president , COO , and interim CFO over eight-plus years at Stitch Fix , the online apparel retailer and personal styling service .
But he told Recode on Thursday that he plans to leave his executive role at the $ 4 billion publicly traded company in the coming months to start a venture capital firm .
His @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the hands of tech entrepreneurs from underrepresented backgrounds , namely Black , Latinx , and women founders .
“ I ’ ve been fortunate that I ’ ve done well being out in this ecosystem , and I want [ there to be ] more people like me , ” Smith told Recode .
“ When I look around and I ’ m the only one or one of the few , it just shouldn ’ t be the case.
” As a racial reckoning swept the US this year in the wake @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some of the Silicon Valley elite who decide how to invest billions into startups have confronted their own role in the systemic issues of economic inequality prevalent in the US .
Only 1 percent of VC-backed entrepreneurs are Black , and less than 2 percent are Latinx .
Meanwhile , the percentage of VC dollars invested in female founders has barely increased since 2012 .
According to a Morgan Stanley report published this week , 61 percent of venture capitalists say that the Black Lives Matter movement has impacted their investment strategy , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that funding “ multicultural-founded ” companies is now one of their top priorities , up from 33 percent in 2019 .
Smith said he was happy to field calls this summer from startup investors and other business leaders who wanted his advice on how to help solve issues of racial injustice and economic inequality .
“ The dialogue needs to happen and there needs to be vulnerability where people can admit , ‘ I don ’ t know what to do , ’ ” Smith said .
At the same time , this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Smith want to do more .
“ I considered either being CEO of a company or joining a venture firm , and then George Floyd happened and the racial unrest , and I really took stock of , ‘ What do I want my impact to look like over the next 10 to 15 years of my career ?
” Smith said .
“ And it was super meaningful to process all that was going on this summer and realize , I do think the broadest impact that I can have is doing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , with diversity being a really important pillar of the firm.
” While Smith said his firm won ’ t ignore founders who aren ’ t from underrepresented backgrounds , there will be a “ big focus ” on evaluating ideas from those entrepreneurs who are .
“ That pipeline has been underrepresented , that pipeline hasn ’ t had access .
And we think we ’ ll find great founders , ” he said .
Smith has for years served as both a formal and informal adviser to a growing network of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that will put him in a position to get in front of the next great wave of entrepreneurs .
The investment firm , which Smith will run with a partner he ’ s not ready to announce , will favor investments in consumer companies based on his experiences over the last two decades working at Stitch Fix and Walmart.com before that .
“ Dollars spent in this country and the world are spent by more people who are non-white , and there ’ s a lot of Black influence on culture in this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ But I don ’ t think we ’ ve seen as much participation in wealth creation , specifically in technology , in the Black community.
” Though Smith will leave his full-time role as interim chief financial officer when Stitch Fix hires a permanent replacement soon , the company is naming him to its board of directors — a rare offer to a departing executive .
Smith also serves on the boards of publicly traded companies Ulta Beauty and Herman Miller , as well as startups Mayvenn and Imperfect Foods .

Mike Smith is a versatile and well-respected executive in the e-commerce industry. He also happens to one of the few Black C-level leaders in tech.
Now he wants to play a bigger role in changing that.
Smith has served as president, COO, and interim CFO over eight-plus years at Stitch Fix, the online apparel retailer and personal styling service. But he told Recode on Thursday that he plans to leave his executive role at the $4 billion publicly traded company in the coming months to start a venture capital firm. His goal is to get more money into the hands of tech entrepreneurs from underrepresented backgrounds, namely Black, Latinx, and women founders.
“I’ve been fortunate that I’ve done well being out in this ecosystem, and I want [there to be] more people like me,” Smith told Recode. “When I look around and I’m the only one or one of the few, it just shouldn’t be the case.”
As a racial reckoning swept the US this year in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, some of the Silicon Valley elite who decide how to invest billions into startups have confronted their own role in the systemic issues of economic inequality prevalent in the US. Only 1 percent of VC-backed entrepreneurs are Black, and less than 2 percent are Latinx. Meanwhile, the percentage of VC dollars invested in female founders has barely increased since 2012. According to a Morgan Stanley report published this week, 61 percent of venture capitalists say that the Black Lives Matter movement has impacted their investment strategy, and 43 percent of these investors say that funding “multicultural-founded” companies is now one of their top priorities, up from 33 percent in 2019.
Smith said he was happy to field calls this summer from startup investors and other business leaders who wanted his advice on how to help solve issues of racial injustice and economic inequality. “The dialogue needs to happen and there needs to be vulnerability where people can admit, ‘I don’t know what to do,’” Smith said.
At the same time, this summer’s events and conversations made Smith want to do more.
“I considered either being CEO of a company or joining a venture firm, and then George Floyd happened and the racial unrest, and I really took stock of, ‘What do I want my impact to look like over the next 10 to 15 years of my career?” Smith said. “And it was super meaningful to process all that was going on this summer and realize, I do think the broadest impact that I can have is doing venture capital and starting my own firm, with diversity being a really important pillar of the firm.”
While Smith said his firm won’t ignore founders who aren’t from underrepresented backgrounds, there will be a “big focus” on evaluating ideas from those entrepreneurs who are.
“That pipeline has been underrepresented, that pipeline hasn’t had access. And we think we’ll find great founders,” he said.
Smith has for years served as both a formal and informal adviser to a growing network of Black and women founders, and believes that will put him in a position to get in front of the next great wave of entrepreneurs. The investment firm, which Smith will run with a partner he’s not ready to announce, will favor investments in consumer companies based on his experiences over the last two decades working at Stitch Fix and Walmart.com before that.
“Dollars spent in this country and the world are spent by more people who are non-white, and there’s a lot of Black influence on culture in this country,” Smith said. “But I don’t think we’ve seen as much participation in wealth creation, specifically in technology, in the Black community.”
Though Smith will leave his full-time role as interim chief financial officer when Stitch Fix hires a permanent replacement soon, the company is naming him to its board of directors — a rare offer to a departing executive. Smith also serves on the boards of publicly traded companies Ulta Beauty and Herman Miller, as well as startups Mayvenn and Imperfect Foods.


vox--2020-11-19--The Princess Switch: Switched Again is more Vanessa Hudgens drag variety hour than holiday rom-com

In a world of love , chaos , succession , and suffering , everything orbits around a life destined for royalty .
To rule a country in this world , you must be willing to give up your life .
To ensure your legacy , you must be willing to give up even more than that .
This is the story of Netflix ’ s The Princess Switch : Switched Again .
But Switched Again is obviously not The Crown .
It is a cutesy holiday movie , which means it ’ s more about harmless fun than dramatic royal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Switch cinematic universe is best defined by lots of baking scenes and the magical holiday trope of “ anything can happen at Christmas ” — both crucial parts of Netflix ’ s ongoing saccharine assault on Hallmark Channel territory .
The Princess Switch saga began when humble Chicago baker Stacy ( Vanessa Hudgens ) and Lady Margaret ( also Hudgens ) , a duchess from the fictional European country of Montenaro , engaged in The Prince and the Pauper-style identical-twin tomfoolery during a holiday pastry competition in the fictional kingdom of Belgravia .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ a normal person for just one day , and the former got a taste for the life of luxury .
Despite committing fraud and perhaps some light espionage ( listen , we don ’ t know what kind of state secrets Stacy may eventually divulge ) , both their friends and the kingdoms of Montenaro and Belgravia forgave the two for their scheme and allowed them to live happily ever after .
And it was all because they were honest about their feelings — in particular , their romantic feelings for their new @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Hudgens reprises both of her roles and adds a third character to the mix .
Hudgens is now also Fiona , Margaret ’ s party-girl cousin , who has apparently existed this entire time in the Princess Switch universe but has surfaced only recently thanks to Margaret ’ s impending coronation as Montenaro ’ s ruler .
With Fiona in the mix , the series shifts from the holiday rom-com of its predecessor into something better resembling a Vanessa Hudgens variety hour .
That isn ’ t necessarily a bad thing , it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be what fans of the silly , predictable , invariably holiday-themed original truly want .
Switched Again begins where the first movie left off .
( Netflix offers a two-minute recap at the beginning , in case you forgot the simplistic plot or are , for whatever reason , a first-time Princess Switch viewer . )
Stacy and Prince Edward of Belgravia ( Sam Palladio ) are now married after falling in love when Stacy and Margaret switched places , which makes Stacy royalty .
Margaret and Kevin ( Nick Sagar ) , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ baker , fell in love too .
But as Stacy narrates in the recap , the king of Montenaro has died , and Margaret is next in line for the throne .
This puts a toll on their relationship , and the stress has led to Margaret and Kevin ’ s breakup .
You might have already guessed that this story isn ’ t really about Margaret becoming Montenaro ’ s new benevolent dictator .
Rather , Switched Again asks whether a subsequent switch between Margaret and Stacy can mend the former ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a plan to switch places again , to see if a few hours spent out of the spotlight ( and with Kevin instead ) will do the trick .
Under normal circumstances , this would be a horrendous plan .
But this is the Princess Switch universe , where romances bloom because people lie about who they really are .
Switching places for a day could definitely be a way to save Kevin and Margaret ’ s relationship .
The problem is that Fiona , Margaret ’ s hard-partying cousin who looks exactly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the way .
Though she ’ s royalty by relation , she ’ s run out of money , which is why she wants to kidnap and switch places with Margaret for a day .
Fiona believes that if she assumes Margaret ’ s identity , she can cut herself a huge check and just live on Capri forever .
While Fiona ’ s dreams are somewhat enviable , her execution leaves a lot to be desired .
She doesn ’ t seem to have figured out the very complicated task of kidnapping @ @ @ @ @ @ @ into account anything that happens after she flees for Capri .
( Who will run Montenaro if Margaret is gone ?
What happens if Margaret tells the authorities of the high treason Fiona has committed by kidnapping a royal ?
Should Fiona just murder Margaret to keep her quiet ? )
Fiona ’ s logic , like the plot of the Princess Switch movies themselves , isn ’ t well developed , but asking for logic or plot in any holiday movie is a pointless exercise .
It ’ s like going to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with the least calories : It ’ s a doughnut , not a health food .
Holiday movie lovers make a bargain with holiday movie producers that they won ’ t worry about pesky terrestrial drawbacks like logic , reality , or pessimism , and in exchange , they ’ ll be showered with harmless , absurd , silly joy .
And in The Princess Switch : Switched Again , Hudgens ’ s awful British accent is central to that joy .
Almost everyone in Montenaro and Belgravia , including Hudgens ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , vaguely British accent .
This was established in the first movie , and Hudgens still sounds far from authentic the second time around .
Her awful accent makes me think of wild scenarios , wherein it ’ s a satirical nod to the ills of colonialism , or maybe some kind of statement about Montenaro ’ s class and affluence , but Occam ’ s razor suggests Hudgens is just not great at doing a British accent .
( Or maybe it really is purposefully bad ? )
Hudgens ’ s flubbed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ plays Stacy ( a Chicagoan ) impersonating Margaret .
Fiona , who is not from Chicago but is a cousin to Margaret , possesses the same speech patterns as Stacy , Margaret , and Stacy impersonating Margaret , but she seems to channel a bit of Eartha Kitt in flashes .
By making Hudgens jump between playing these three characters , Switched Again resembles something like Vanessa Hudgens ’ s Drag Race or Vanessa Hudgens Presents : Westworld .
There ’ s a lot of time spent watching Vanessa Hudgens say the words @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” and “ Kevin ” to Vanessa Hudgens .
When those moments aren ’ t happening , it ’ s Vanessa Hudgens in a blonde wig saying something vaguely bitchy to a brown-haired Vanessa Hudgens .
The movie is simultaneously a test of Hudgens ’ s innate charisma and how much viewers enjoy watching her .
The drawback to Switched Again going full-on Hudgens charm offensive is that the first movie ’ s holiday antics aren ’ t as present this time around .
The silly contrivances about Christmas magic and effects like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ barely exist .
The absurd twinning hijinks are gone too .
The supporting characters are shuffled off to the side , save for small instances where the movie remembers that two of them are the main characters ’ love interests .
There ’ s barely any reason this movie is tethered to the holidays , except that Montenaro ’ s coronation traditionally takes place on Christmas .
Not unlike the previous movie , Switched Again is a perfectly harmless way to burn 90 minutes , during which you won ’ t worry about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
It ’ s inoffensively fine — the conflict is never too high-stakes , and the happy ending is happy enough .
Hudgens is game and extremely fun to watch , which is a big success on the movie ’ s part .
But with The Princess Switch now supposed to be one of Netflix ’ s new marquee holiday-movie franchises , with such low stakes and the curve of holiday movie , you wouldn ’ t be incorrect in wishing for something a little sillier and cheesier , with a little less @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Princess Switch : Switched Again is currently streaming on Netflix .

In a world of love, chaos, succession, and suffering, everything orbits around a life destined for royalty. To rule a country in this world, you must be willing to give up your life. To ensure your legacy, you must be willing to give up even more than that.
This is the story of Netflix’s The Princess Switch: Switched Again.
But Switched Again is obviously not The Crown. It is a cutesy holiday movie, which means it’s more about harmless fun than dramatic royal tension. Netflix’s budding Princess Switch cinematic universe is best defined by lots of baking scenes and the magical holiday trope of “anything can happen at Christmas” — both crucial parts of Netflix’s ongoing saccharine assault on Hallmark Channel territory.
The Princess Switch saga began when humble Chicago baker Stacy (Vanessa Hudgens) and Lady Margaret (also Hudgens), a duchess from the fictional European country of Montenaro, engaged in The Prince and the Pauper-style identical-twin tomfoolery during a holiday pastry competition in the fictional kingdom of Belgravia.
The latter got to live life as a normal person for just one day, and the former got a taste for the life of luxury. Despite committing fraud and perhaps some light espionage (listen, we don’t know what kind of state secrets Stacy may eventually divulge), both their friends and the kingdoms of Montenaro and Belgravia forgave the two for their scheme and allowed them to live happily ever after. And it was all because they were honest about their feelings — in particular, their romantic feelings for their new love interests.
In Switched Again, Hudgens reprises both of her roles and adds a third character to the mix. Hudgens is now also Fiona, Margaret’s party-girl cousin, who has apparently existed this entire time in the Princess Switch universe but has surfaced only recently thanks to Margaret’s impending coronation as Montenaro’s ruler. With Fiona in the mix, the series shifts from the holiday rom-com of its predecessor into something better resembling a Vanessa Hudgens variety hour. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it turns out. It just might not be what fans of the silly, predictable, invariably holiday-themed original truly want.
Welcome to Vanessa Hudgens’s drag brunch
Switched Again begins where the first movie left off. (Netflix offers a two-minute recap at the beginning, in case you forgot the simplistic plot or are, for whatever reason, a first-time Princess Switch viewer.) Stacy and Prince Edward of Belgravia (Sam Palladio) are now married after falling in love when Stacy and Margaret switched places, which makes Stacy royalty. Margaret and Kevin (Nick Sagar), Stacy’s best friend and sous baker, fell in love too. But as Stacy narrates in the recap, the king of Montenaro has died, and Margaret is next in line for the throne. This puts a toll on their relationship, and the stress has led to Margaret and Kevin’s breakup.
You might have already guessed that this story isn’t really about Margaret becoming Montenaro’s new benevolent dictator. Rather, Switched Again asks whether a subsequent switch between Margaret and Stacy can mend the former’s fractured relationship. The two hatch a plan to switch places again, to see if a few hours spent out of the spotlight (and with Kevin instead) will do the trick.
Under normal circumstances, this would be a horrendous plan. But this is the Princess Switch universe, where romances bloom because people lie about who they really are. Switching places for a day could definitely be a way to save Kevin and Margaret’s relationship.
The problem is that Fiona, Margaret’s hard-partying cousin who looks exactly like Margaret and Stacy, stands in the way. Though she’s royalty by relation, she’s run out of money, which is why she wants to kidnap and switch places with Margaret for a day. Fiona believes that if she assumes Margaret’s identity, she can cut herself a huge check and just live on Capri forever.
While Fiona’s dreams are somewhat enviable, her execution leaves a lot to be desired. She doesn’t seem to have figured out the very complicated task of kidnapping a royal, nor has she taken into account anything that happens after she flees for Capri. (Who will run Montenaro if Margaret is gone? What happens if Margaret tells the authorities of the high treason Fiona has committed by kidnapping a royal? Should Fiona just murder Margaret to keep her quiet?)
Fiona’s logic, like the plot of the Princess Switch movies themselves, isn’t well developed, but asking for logic or plot in any holiday movie is a pointless exercise. It’s like going to a doughnut shop and ordering the one with the least calories: It’s a doughnut, not a health food. Holiday movie lovers make a bargain with holiday movie producers that they won’t worry about pesky terrestrial drawbacks like logic, reality, or pessimism, and in exchange, they’ll be showered with harmless, absurd, silly joy.
And in The Princess Switch: Switched Again, Hudgens’s awful British accent is central to that joy.
Almost everyone in Montenaro and Belgravia, including Hudgens’s Margaret, inexplicably speaks with a strange, vaguely British accent. This was established in the first movie, and Hudgens still sounds far from authentic the second time around. Her awful accent makes me think of wild scenarios, wherein it’s a satirical nod to the ills of colonialism, or maybe some kind of statement about Montenaro’s class and affluence, but Occam’s razor suggests Hudgens is just not great at doing a British accent. (Or maybe it really is purposefully bad?)
Hudgens’s flubbed inflections make exponentially more sense when she plays Stacy (a Chicagoan) impersonating Margaret. Fiona, who is not from Chicago but is a cousin to Margaret, possesses the same speech patterns as Stacy, Margaret, and Stacy impersonating Margaret, but she seems to channel a bit of Eartha Kitt in flashes.
By making Hudgens jump between playing these three characters, Switched Again resembles something like Vanessa Hudgens’s Drag Race or Vanessa Hudgens Presents: Westworld. There’s a lot of time spent watching Vanessa Hudgens say the words “coronation,” “orphans,” and “Kevin” to Vanessa Hudgens. When those moments aren’t happening, it’s Vanessa Hudgens in a blonde wig saying something vaguely bitchy to a brown-haired Vanessa Hudgens. The movie is simultaneously a test of Hudgens’s innate charisma and how much viewers enjoy watching her.
The drawback to Switched Again going full-on Hudgens charm offensive is that the first movie’s holiday antics aren’t as present this time around. The silly contrivances about Christmas magic and effects like Belgravia’s dorky-but-lovable holiday baking competition barely exist. The absurd twinning hijinks are gone too. The supporting characters are shuffled off to the side, save for small instances where the movie remembers that two of them are the main characters’ love interests. There’s barely any reason this movie is tethered to the holidays, except that Montenaro’s coronation traditionally takes place on Christmas.
Not unlike the previous movie, Switched Again is a perfectly harmless way to burn 90 minutes, during which you won’t worry about the awful things happening in real life. It’s inoffensively fine — the conflict is never too high-stakes, and the happy ending is happy enough. Hudgens is game and extremely fun to watch, which is a big success on the movie’s part. But with The Princess Switch now supposed to be one of Netflix’s new marquee holiday-movie franchises, with such low stakes and the curve of holiday movie, you wouldn’t be incorrect in wishing for something a little sillier and cheesier, with a little less kidnapping and fewer hammy accents.
The Princess Switch: Switched Again is currently streaming on Netflix.


vox--2020-11-20--Georgia’s Republican secretary of state just certified Biden’s victory

It ’ s official : The state of Georgia has certified Joe Biden ’ s victory over Donald Trump .
Georgia became the first swing state Biden won to certify its results Friday , as Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger made it official that Biden beat Trump by a little over 12,000 votes .
By margin , it ’ s the closest of any swing state — about 0.26 percentage points .
Georgia ’ s Republican governor , Brian Kemp also announced Friday afternoon that he will formalize the certification , as required by state law .
“ Working @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I live by the motto that numbers don ’ t lie , ” Raffensperger said at a press conference Friday morning .
“ The numbers reflect the verdict of the people , not a decision by the secretary of state ’ s office or of courts or of either campaign.
” Ordinarily , certification would be a formality .
But President Trump has been making an unprecedented effort to interfere with the mechanics of electoral democracy in the United States , by trying to block the certification of results in states Biden won @ @ @ @ @ @ @ There was a bit of confusion earlier Friday , as Georgia ’ s secretary of state office announced midday that the results had been certified , but said a little over an hour later that that announcement was erroneous and the certification hadn ’ t happened yet .
But around 4 pm Eastern Friday , the office confirmed in a new release that it they made it official .
What comes next in Georgia President Trump has attacked both Kemp and Raffensperger on Twitter , making false allegations of fraud and complaining that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ set in state law .
“ Governor Kemp will hopefully see the light before it is too late .
Must finally take charge !
” Trump tweeted .
But Raffensperger resisted this pressure and certified Georgia ’ s result Friday .
Kemp also announced that he will formalize that certification , which would officially appoint Biden ’ s slate of electors as the state ’ s representatives to the Electoral College .
However , even though the result has been certified , Trump has until Tuesday to ask for another recount in Georgia @ @ @ @ @ @ @ state carried out , a hand audit of all results in the state — but Trump can request a machine recount , which the state would pay for .
No recount has ever erased anything close to a 12,000-vote lead , though , and even Trump has downplayed the chances that a recount would put him ahead .
Finally , Trump ’ s team has also been arguing that Republican legislatures in states Biden won should step in and appoint Trump electors , defying the will of voters .
Such a maneuver would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Georgia is the rare close swing state where Republicans do control both the governorship and the state legislature , meaning that a partisan plot here would be at least theoretically conceivable .
However , state legislature leaders have given no indication they ’ d try this yet .
For now , Georgia ’ s 16 electoral votes appear on track to go to Biden .
This piece has been updated to reflect the most recent information from Georgia ’ s secretary of state office .

It’s official: The state of Georgia has certified Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump.
Georgia became the first swing state Biden won to certify its results Friday, as Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger made it official that Biden beat Trump by a little over 12,000 votes. By margin, it’s the closest of any swing state — about 0.26 percentage points.
Georgia’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp also announced Friday afternoon that he will formalize the certification, as required by state law.
“Working as an engineer throughout my life, I live by the motto that numbers don’t lie,” Raffensperger said at a press conference Friday morning. “The numbers reflect the verdict of the people, not a decision by the secretary of state’s office or of courts or of either campaign.”
Ordinarily, certification would be a formality. But President Trump has been making an unprecedented effort to interfere with the mechanics of electoral democracy in the United States, by trying to block the certification of results in states Biden won, making baseless claims of fraud.
There was a bit of confusion earlier Friday, as Georgia’s secretary of state office announced midday that the results had been certified, but said a little over an hour later that that announcement was erroneous and the certification hadn’t happened yet. But around 4 pm Eastern Friday, the office confirmed in a new release that it they made it official.
What comes next in Georgia
President Trump has attacked both Kemp and Raffensperger on Twitter, making false allegations of fraud and complaining that they are abiding by the certification deadlines set in state law. “Governor Kemp will hopefully see the light before it is too late. Must finally take charge!” Trump tweeted.
But Raffensperger resisted this pressure and certified Georgia’s result Friday. Kemp also announced that he will formalize that certification, which would officially appoint Biden’s slate of electors as the state’s representatives to the Electoral College.
However, even though the result has been certified, Trump has until Tuesday to ask for another recount in Georgia. Raffensperger already ordered, and the state carried out, a hand audit of all results in the state — but Trump can request a machine recount, which the state would pay for. No recount has ever erased anything close to a 12,000-vote lead, though, and even Trump has downplayed the chances that a recount would put him ahead.
Finally, Trump’s team has also been arguing that Republican legislatures in states Biden won should step in and appoint Trump electors, defying the will of voters. Such a maneuver would be legally dubious at best.
But Georgia is the rare close swing state where Republicans do control both the governorship and the state legislature, meaning that a partisan plot here would be at least theoretically conceivable. However, state legislature leaders have given no indication they’d try this yet. For now, Georgia’s 16 electoral votes appear on track to go to Biden.
This piece has been updated to reflect the most recent information from Georgia’s secretary of state office.


vox--2020-11-20--BTS’s new album is sublime comfort pop for the soul in lockdown

What do you do after you ’ ve made world history by becoming the first Korean band — and only the third band ever — to hit the No .
1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 ?
If you ’ re BTS , apparently you keep on working .
On Friday , the much-adored K-pop group released Be , their first album since February ’ s Map of the Soul : 7 dropped at the beginning of the pandemic , and since its summer bop “ Dynamite ” became their first top-charting single in the US .
“ Dynamite @ @ @ @ @ @ @ first single entirely in English , seemed to be born out of a recognition that the band was somehow too complex to get American radio play .
It was in many ways a major departure from their typical approach to their craft .
So when BTS announced a new album , the question loomed about what kind of album Be would , uh , be : whether it would venture still further away from their previous musical and collaborative styles , or represent a return to their typical mix of rock and hip-hop @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Be is a short album , with just seven new tracks alongside “ Dynamite.
” But nearly all of them are sublime .
Taken as a whole , they form a seamless litany of bops intended to commemorate and celebrate getting through the Covid-19 pandemic .
Musically , Be is pure pop , all the way down — a loudly retro mix of pop sounds ranging from frothy to funky , melancholic to mellow , filtered through a lens of determined positivity .
The band ’ s harder , more anthemic sound @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and landed their fantastic single “ On ” at the fourth spot on the Billboard Hot 100 in February , is absent here .
And that ’ s fine , because the album ’ s message seems to be about staying light , upbeat , and grasping hope wherever possible .
As many parts of the US are reentering states of crisis , Be is like a deliberate road map for how we can all get through the next few months : singalongs , good humor , and reliance on the bonds that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a proclamation and a promise .
It ’ s okay to rest , it says : to simply exist , to survive , to be .
In that sense , the album ’ s auditory shift toward total pop feels like a completely necessary response to a very difficult year — and indeed , it ’ s intended to be .
Be opens with the band ’ s newest single , “ Life Goes On , ” which dropped at midnight on Friday alongside the album itself .
Its theme — the pandemic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ music video , which was directed by band member Jeon Jungkook and opens with a lonely V ( Kim Taehyung ) driving down a mostly empty highway .
He ’ s intercut with shots of Jungkook glancing wistfully outside his window , as they both reminisce about how “ one day the world stopped.
” One by one , the other band members join in , singing good-naturedly about how even though they miss company and activity , even though they ’ re pursued by melancholy , one day life will return to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , singable song that finds positivity in simplicity — about what you ’ d expect from a collaboration with songwriter Antonina Armato , who incidentally also wrote the best song ever written : “ Bet On It ” from High School Musical 2 .
“ Fly to My Room ” is next , a jaunty song with a cute Ariana Grande-ish vibe that ’ s all about turning your room into a fantasy world tour because you ’ re stuck inside and can ’ t leave .
It ’ s adorable , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a faint gospel vibe to both these songs — they wouldn ’ t feel out of place in , say , a Charlie Puth collaboration — that sets the stage for everything to come .
This is pop music as meditation , as solace , as an expression of faith .
The band ’ s thematic material will be familiar to fans .
Here as always , BTS frankly discuss things like mental health and the pressure that goes along with fame .
But Be stays airy , even when its lyrics are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ eight tracks , including album-closer “ Dynamite ” and a spoken-word skit in which they poke fun at themselves for being chart-toppers , comes across like a personal reminder that we ’ re all in this together .
Even the album ’ s lush ballad “ Blue & Grey ” maintains this feeling of warm energy , although it ’ s explicitly about dealing with depression and pandemic-induced loneliness .
After all , even though the boys say , “ I am singing by myself , ” they ’ re still all singing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ quality to this number , not only because members of the group co-wrote it — the band co-wrote the entire album — but because BTS ’ s gorgeous vocals are often the melodic equivalent of an ASMR session .
Taekook ’ s breathy opening verse , followed by Suga and J-Hope ’ s laidback rhymes , all feel like someone whispering at you across your pillow .
( Hiss Noise , who produced Taehyung ’ s two lovely solo ballads , “ Winter Bear ” and “ Sweet Night , ” also co-wrote @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the same soothing ambiance is immediately recognizable . )
Then there ’ s Jimin ’ s plaintive , cheery tenor , which always turns him into the cuddliest , secret-keeping member of your slumber party .
BTS are pros at creating this kind of intimacy between artist and listenerer — and here , applying that skill to the creation of what I hereby christen “ comfort pop ” feels like a public service .
That brings me to “ Telepathy ” and “ Stay , ” both tracks that deal with the band @ @ @ @ @ @ @ into peppy optimism .
The flamboyantly autotuned “ Telepathy , ” the only song that comes close to being a dud for me , still feels like a musical thumbs-up and a change of pace , reminiscent of a quirkier K-pop band like Block B rather than BTS .
“ Stay , ” on the other hand , is exactly my jam : a multi-layered song that starts out channeling the retro ’ 90s vibe of BTS ’ s earlier 2020 song “ Moon ” — my favorite song of the year — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ beat .
In discussing the specific sound of “ Moon ” recently with Switched on Pop ’ s Charlie Harding , I realized that both it and “ Stay ” are channeling a specific flavor of early-90s pop that gives me an instant serotonin boost .
You ’ re lucky I even stopped looping “ Stay ” to listen to the rest of this album .
In both “ Tapestry ” and “ Stay , ” BTS does that thing they frequently do where the band directly addresses its fandom as a specific @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this trait to be off-putting rather than sweet , even though it ’ s just the kind of personalization Army adores .
And even though I love “ Stay , ” I ’ m definitely not sure if we needed two different songs about this theme in an album that ’ s already shorter than usual .
But it ’ s also undeniable that in this period of quarantine , social distancing , and separation , you can never have too many sonic hugs .
Be ’ s songs are all explicit distractions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ angst and then redirect it toward something happier .
Even the title of the most explicitly grim song , “ Dis-Ease , ” ostensibly about Covid-19 itself , is a pun on the idea of unease rather than a direct confrontation of illness .
Its anxiety gets channeled through a fabulous spin cycle of musical motifs , a hip-hop beat set to funk horn and guitars with an old-school boy band chorus .
It ’ s all backing snarky raps full of humor and wordplay , and it becomes about facing — and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
It ’ s as if the pandemic has scaled back the emotional bandwidth of this album .
Bitterness , frustration , and despair may be present , but they have no place in the hallowed space of contemplation that BTS has carved out for themselves .
In this context , “ Dynamite , ” which I had my reservations about , feels like the perfect exclamation point when it closes out Be — a fun , vibrant future fantasy whose lyrical nonsense becomes part of the album ’ s determinedly escapist milieu @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a permanent shift away from the band ’ s varied framework so much as , perhaps , a timely thesis statement .
Be tells us , clearly and delightfully , what BTS is and what it wants to be .
And what the band wants to be is a source of positivity , hope , and gladness .
In this , BTS has clearly succeeded .
Sparkle on , you funky diamonds , and please keep doing what you ’ re doing — it may not be considered essential work , but it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will we shine through the city again with a little funk and soul ?
Soon , BTS promises , and who are we to argue ?

What do you do after you’ve made world history by becoming the first Korean band — and only the third band ever — to hit the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100?
If you’re BTS, apparently you keep on working. On Friday, the much-adored K-pop group released Be, their first album since February’s Map of the Soul: 7 dropped at the beginning of the pandemic, and since its summer bop “Dynamite” became their first top-charting single in the US.
The song keeps on breaking ground for the band — it‘s now delivered BTS a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Duo or Group Performance, just days after Be’s release.
“Dynamite,” not incidentally BTS’s first single entirely in English, seemed to be born out of a recognition that the band was somehow too complex to get American radio play. It was in many ways a major departure from their typical approach to their craft.
So when BTS announced a new album, the question loomed about what kind of album Be would, uh, be: whether it would venture still further away from their previous musical and collaborative styles, or represent a return to their typical mix of rock and hip-hop with the occasional lighter pop thrown in.
Be is a short album, with just seven new tracks alongside “Dynamite.” But nearly all of them are sublime. Taken as a whole, they form a seamless litany of bops intended to commemorate and celebrate getting through the Covid-19 pandemic. Musically, Be is pure pop, all the way down — a loudly retro mix of pop sounds ranging from frothy to funky, melancholic to mellow, filtered through a lens of determined positivity.
The band’s harder, more anthemic sound, which put them on the map and landed their fantastic single “On” at the fourth spot on the Billboard Hot 100 in February, is absent here. And that’s fine, because the album’s message seems to be about staying light, upbeat, and grasping hope wherever possible. As many parts of the US are reentering states of crisis, Be is like a deliberate road map for how we can all get through the next few months: singalongs, good humor, and reliance on the bonds that keep us close.
Be is both a proclamation and a promise. It’s okay to rest, it says: to simply exist, to survive, to be. In that sense, the album’s auditory shift toward total pop feels like a completely necessary response to a very difficult year — and indeed, it’s intended to be.
Be opens with the band’s newest single, “Life Goes On,” which dropped at midnight on Friday alongside the album itself. Its theme — the pandemic — is immediately obvious from the accompanying music video, which was directed by band member Jeon Jungkook and opens with a lonely V (Kim Taehyung) driving down a mostly empty highway. He’s intercut with shots of Jungkook glancing wistfully outside his window, as they both reminisce about how “one day the world stopped.”
One by one, the other band members join in, singing good-naturedly about how even though they miss company and activity, even though they’re pursued by melancholy, one day life will return to normal. It’s a sweet, singable song that finds positivity in simplicity — about what you’d expect from a collaboration with songwriter Antonina Armato, who incidentally also wrote the best song ever written: “Bet On It” from High School Musical 2.
“Fly to My Room” is next, a jaunty song with a cute Ariana Grande-ish vibe that’s all about turning your room into a fantasy world tour because you’re stuck inside and can’t leave. It’s adorable, and I love it. There’s a faint gospel vibe to both these songs — they wouldn’t feel out of place in, say, a Charlie Puth collaboration — that sets the stage for everything to come. This is pop music as meditation, as solace, as an expression of faith.
The band’s thematic material will be familiar to fans. Here as always, BTS frankly discuss things like mental health and the pressure that goes along with fame. But Be stays airy, even when its lyrics are moody. Each of Be’s eight tracks, including album-closer “Dynamite” and a spoken-word skit in which they poke fun at themselves for being chart-toppers, comes across like a personal reminder that we’re all in this together. Even the album’s lush ballad “Blue & Grey” maintains this feeling of warm energy, although it’s explicitly about dealing with depression and pandemic-induced loneliness. After all, even though the boys say, “I am singing by myself,” they’re still all singing together.
There’s a confessional quality to this number, not only because members of the group co-wrote it — the band co-wrote the entire album — but because BTS’s gorgeous vocals are often the melodic equivalent of an ASMR session. Taekook’s breathy opening verse, followed by Suga and J-Hope’s laidback rhymes, all feel like someone whispering at you across your pillow. (Hiss Noise, who produced Taehyung’s two lovely solo ballads, “Winter Bear” and “Sweet Night,” also co-wrote “Blue & Grey,” and the same soothing ambiance is immediately recognizable.) Then there’s Jimin’s plaintive, cheery tenor, which always turns him into the cuddliest, secret-keeping member of your slumber party. BTS are pros at creating this kind of intimacy between artist and listenerer — and here, applying that skill to the creation of what I hereby christen “comfort pop” feels like a public service.
That brings me to “Telepathy” and “Stay,” both tracks that deal with the band missing their fans by converting their loneliness into peppy optimism. The flamboyantly autotuned “Telepathy,” the only song that comes close to being a dud for me, still feels like a musical thumbs-up and a change of pace, reminiscent of a quirkier K-pop band like Block B rather than BTS. “Stay,” on the other hand, is exactly my jam: a multi-layered song that starts out channeling the retro ’90s vibe of BTS’s earlier 2020 song “Moon” — my favorite song of the year — before opening up into a breezy EDM beat.
In discussing the specific sound of “Moon” recently with Switched on Pop’s Charlie Harding, I realized that both it and “Stay” are channeling a specific flavor of early-90s pop that gives me an instant serotonin boost. You’re lucky I even stopped looping “Stay” to listen to the rest of this album.
In both “Telepathy” and “Stay,” BTS does that thing they frequently do where the band directly addresses its fandom as a specific “you.” Ordinarily, I find this trait to be off-putting rather than sweet, even though it’s just the kind of personalization Army adores. And even though I love “Stay,” I’m definitely not sure if we needed two different songs about this theme in an album that’s already shorter than usual.
But it’s also undeniable that in this period of quarantine, social distancing, and separation, you can never have too many sonic hugs. Be’s songs are all explicit distractions, meant to acknowledge our collective humanitarian angst and then redirect it toward something happier. Even the title of the most explicitly grim song, “Dis-Ease,” ostensibly about Covid-19 itself, is a pun on the idea of unease rather than a direct confrontation of illness. Its anxiety gets channeled through a fabulous spin cycle of musical motifs, a hip-hop beat set to funk horn and guitars with an old-school boy band chorus. It’s all backing snarky raps full of humor and wordplay, and it becomes about facing — and overcoming — a more generalized internal doubt.
It’s as if the pandemic has scaled back the emotional bandwidth of this album. Bitterness, frustration, and despair may be present, but they have no place in the hallowed space of contemplation that BTS has carved out for themselves.
In this context, “Dynamite,” which I had my reservations about, feels like the perfect exclamation point when it closes out Be — a fun, vibrant future fantasy whose lyrical nonsense becomes part of the album’s determinedly escapist milieu.
Be doesn’t feel like a permanent shift away from the band’s varied framework so much as, perhaps, a timely thesis statement. Be tells us, clearly and delightfully, what BTS is and what it wants to be. And what the band wants to be is a source of positivity, hope, and gladness.
BE feels like a love letter to the sadness and quiet triumphs of life in lockdown. everything is different but they have bridged the entire world with a reminder that this is not forever and that there is always joy to be found in our little corners of it. this music is history. — BEgel BiTeS⁷ (@BagelBites) November 20, 2020
In this, BTS has clearly succeeded. Sparkle on, you funky diamonds, and please keep doing what you’re doing — it may not be considered essential work, but it’s definitely essential art.
When will we shine through the city again with a little funk and soul? Soon, BTS promises, and who are we to argue?