There is an intimacy to the messages that arrive in community group chats. A mother in Guadalajara sends a voice note to her daughter in Los Angeles; a cousin in Shenzhen forwards a news link into a WeChat group named after the family village; a neighbor in Queens shares a screenshot of a poll watcher warning in a church WhatsApp group. These are not strangers shouting into the endless feed of a public timeline. These are the voices of people we love, people who care about us, people who would never intentionally put us in harm’s way. And that is precisely why election disinformation is so dangerous when it travels through these trusted networks. It does not look like propaganda. It looks like protection. On Friday, October 23, 2026, at 11am PST, an important briefing presented by ACoM will ask a deceptively simple question: Who gets the last word when election disinformation spreads through the very communities it is meant to silence? With the midterm elections only weeks away, the answer could determine whether thousands of eligible voters cast ballots or stay home out of fear, confusion, and mistrust.
The stakes could not be more human. For immigrant and diaspora communities, elections are not just about choosing candidates. They are about belonging, safety, and the promise that a life built through sacrifice will be respected. But disinformation about voting and immigration is designed to exploit the exact fears that come with that promise. A whisper travels through WhatsApp claiming that immigration agents will be stationed outside polling places. A forwarded video insinuates that voting while holding a green card, or even while waiting for citizenship, is a deportable offense. A fake notice announces that polling locations have changed in a neighborhood where every vote might matter. These lies are not random. They are targeted, emotionally resonant, and delivered in languages and cultural contexts that feel familiar. For someone who has experienced political violence or corruption in their home country, these messages do not seem absurd. They seem like cautionary truths. The result is a quiet crisis: eligible voters choose not to participate, not because they are indifferent, but because they are afraid. And when a trusted aunt or a respected pastor forwards those warnings, the fear is contagious. In this way, disinformation does not need to convince everyone. It only needs to create enough doubt to keep people away.
The platforms at the center of this conversation are not the usual suspects. While much of the public debate about election integrity focuses on X, Facebook, and TikTok, the most consequential spread of false information often happens in encrypted and semi-closed spaces like WhatsApp, WeChat, Telegram, and Viber. These are not just tools for communication; they are lifelines for families separated by borders, for workers coordinating shifts, for students sharing resources, for elderly immigrants who rely on voice messages rather than written updates. Because these platforms are private, research and counter-disinformation efforts are far more difficult. There is no trending page to monitor, no public comment section to flag. A lie can travel through dozens of groups before it ever reaches an investigator. And by the time a fact-check is published, the original message has already been reshaped, edited, re-voiced, and forwarded by someone who thought they were helping. The briefing will explore how these narratives actually move through diaspora networks, with attention to the emotional and cultural grammar that makes them believable. It will also highlight why the solution cannot simply be more fact-checking. Fact-checks only matter if they reach people inside the same spaces, from voices they already trust. The most effective response is not a correction from an outsider, but a conversation from within.
Artificial intelligence is making this problem far more sophisticated. The briefing will dedicate significant attention to AI’s expanding role in election disinformation, including deepfakes, misleading campaign videos, and chatbots that dispense inaccurate voting information. One troubling example involves comparing chatbot responses in Spanish and English: ask the same question about voting eligibility in both languages, and the Spanish version may produce a warning, an ambiguity, or an outright error, while the English version gives clear, accurate guidance. These disparities are not always deliberate, but they are dangerous. AI systems are trained on data that already contains biases, and the result is that communities with fewer digital resources and less English-language access are being left to navigate a maze of half-truths. The briefing will examine how AI-generated content appears in community channels: a deepfake video of a candidate saying something they never said, an AI-generated audio clip imitating a beloved community leader, a realistic but fabricated news broadcast in Tagalog or Mandarin or Spanish. For average users, these fakes are almost impossible to distinguish from reality. They have the same voices, the same gestures, the same production quality. They are designed to be shared by people who believe they are passing along important information. Attendees will receive a practical guide to identifying AI-generated disinformation, a tool that is becoming as essential as checking the weather before leaving the house. The guide will offer clear, accessible markers, small clues that a video or audio clip may not be authentic, as well as a process for verifying news before forwarding it.
The strength of the briefing lies in the people who will speak. Cameron Hickey, CEO of the National Conference on Citizenship, brings deep expertise in understanding how information ecosystems affect civic life. His work focuses not just on technology, but on the relationship between community trust, media literacy, and participation in democracy. Jinxia Niu, from the Chinese Digital Engagement Project at Chinese for Affirmative Action, offers a frontline perspective on how Chinese-speaking immigrant communities are being reached, misled, and mobilized, and how culturally grounded engagement can counteract harmful narratives. Laura Zommer, co-founder and CEO of Factchequeado, represents one of the most innovative efforts to build trust and combat misinformation in Spanish-speaking communities across the United States. Together, they represent a bridge between rigorous research and real-world community organizing. Their presence underscores one of the most hopeful truths about this moment: the fight against disinformation is not only about exposing lies. It is about strengthening the relationships and institutions that make people feel seen, informed, and empowered. When a community has its own journalists, its own bilingual fact-checkers, its own organizers who understand the language and the lived experience, then the community can defend itself.
Ultimately, this briefing is not just an intellectual exercise. It is a call to pay attention to the spaces where democracy is actually won or lost. Friday, October 23, 2026, at 11am PST is a moment for anyone who cares about fair elections to pause and refocus. The conversation will be practical and grounded, filled with real examples, uncomfortable truths, and useful tools. Attendees will leave with more than a guide to identifying AI-generated disinformation. They will leave with a clearer understanding of what it means to protect one another in a world where technology can mimic warmth, weaponize trust, and distort reality. The phrase “who gets the last word” is not rhetorical. It is a challenge. In every family chat, every community forum, every forwarded message with a warning that begins with “I don’t usually share these things, but…” there is an opportunity for someone to interrupt the cycle. The last word does not belong to the loudest lie. It belongs to the person who verifies, who cares enough to check, who is trusted enough to say, “I looked into this, and it’s not true.” It belongs to community elders, faith leaders, bilingual youth, and local organizers who refuse to let fear decide the future. On that October morning, the speakers will show how that trust can be rebuilt and how every eligible voter can be reached before the lie gets there first. The event is presented by ACoM, and it invites everyone to become part of a new kind of network, one built on accurate information, cultural humility, and shared responsibility. Because when the last word is truth, democracy grows stronger, and every person who belongs to this country can finally be sure that their voice matters.