argues that this publication has relevance for the issue of fake content: This regulatory trend in digital marketing is linked to disinformation because there is a strategy on the part of the [SIC] to create certain liabilities regarding forcing digital influencers to disclose when they receive money to speak. There is a link with disinformation because there is a wide range of practices, including manipulating the public space with digital influencers through payment, performing an advertising agenda. LEGAL INITIATIVES In 2020 the Senate approved a proposal to change the Electoral Code (Bill No. 234). The bill now punishes content that is critical of politicians and parties and gives the National Electoral Council the power to investigate and sanction citizens for their posts on social networks. Civil society organizations raised their voices after the approval of the change, pointing out that the procedure was irregular in that there had been no debate or transparency, and that it could promote censorship by making it difficult to criticize candidates and political parties. 9. MÉXICO 9.1 THE DISINFORMATION LANDSCAPE IN THE COUNTRY The media landscape in Mexico is composed of large conglomerates. One of them, América Móvil, has operations in twenty-six countries in Latin America and Europe, maintaining large telecommunications operators and pay TV services. The conglomerate, headed by one of the richest men in the world, Carlos Slim Helú, has as its main media vehicles Uno TV and Contenido and websites focused on municipalities, as well as print media such as the magazines Contenido and FASTMag. The Televisa group has one of the largest TV stations in the country, Las Estrellas, in addition to some of the most popular websites, such as Televisa, SPD Notícias, and El Deforma. The Multimedios group controls TV stations such as Canal 12 and Milenio Televisión, thirty-seven radio stations, newspapers such as Milenio Diario, and websites such as Milenio, while the Grupo Empresarial Ángeles owns Imagem Televisión TV station and a radio station with the same name, as well as the Excelsior print and online newspaper. I N FO R M ATI O N D I SO R D ER IN THE GLOBA L SOUTH Kaspersky’s Iceberg Digital survey indicated that 66 percent of Mexicans had difficulty in distinguishing between true and false elements in messages—one of the lowest percentages among the nations analyzed. According to the survey, 42 percent of Mexicans do not question, or question only marginally, what they read on the internet—the lowest proportion among the nations examined. The study found that 35 percent of the country’s citizens use social networks as sources of information (Diazgranados 2020). According to the Global Disinformation Index risk survey of 2021, among thirty-one Mexican websites analyzed, five were identified as having a high risk of disinformation and twenty-five as having a medium risk (Lara and Jimenez 2021). Among the aspects considered in the evaluation is poor transparency (about owners and funding sources). There have even been cases in Mexico where disinformation led to deaths. In 2018, in the state of Puebla, two men were lynched and burned alive by a mob after false messages stating they were child kidnappers were spread among residents of the town (Martinez 2018). Against the backdrop of Covid-19, the country has also seen political officials spreading fake news. In March 2020, the governor of Puebla claimed that Covid-19 would affect only affluent people and that poor people would be immune to the disease (Forbes 2020). The country’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has advocated the use of amulets against the disease and has claimed that refraining from lying and stealing would help against Covid-19 (El Universal 2021). During the pandemic, disinformation led citizens to take medicines with no scientific basis and even motivated aggressive behavior towards health workers (Hardy 2020). In Chiapas and the State of Mexico, disinformation led to people vandalizing local hospitals and burning police cars. Fake news common to several countries also circulated in Mexico, such as claims that messenger RNA vaccines, such as those of Pfizer and Moderna, would affect the genetic material of those receiving the vaccine, or that the vaccines were developed so quickly because they did not go through the clinical trials necessary to ensure safety and efficacy (Toche 2020). Latin America and the Caribbean – 1 07