Well-funded conservatives are gaming social platforms against Mexico’s government, Sheinbaum warns, pointing to Latin America’s elections and pushing rules on algorithmic manipulation.

This article by Fernanda Monroy originally appeared in the August 24, 2026 edition of Contralínea, an independent Mexican investigative magazine.

The advance of artificial intelligence has made it easier for conservative actors with financial resources to manufacture artificial trends on social media to discredit people or governments without any basis, President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo warned during her morning press conference.

Figures that appear to show millions of views, or of people talking about a topic, in reality come from bots that, through artificial intelligence mechanisms, produce content at high speed and with no real human involvement, the president explained.

They are not people, they are robots.

President Claudia Sheinbaum

She maintained that these tools have been used for political ends, particularly against humanist governments; as an example, the president cited what has happened in various recent electoral processes in Latin America.

In response, she laid out two lines of action: the dissemination of truthful information and a push for regulation that would keep digital platforms from becoming a space where, she said, “the citizen” ends up displaced by algorithmic manipulation.

Regarding the use of terms such as “narco-candidate,” “narco-president,” and “narco-government” that were spread without any basis starting in her campaign period, Claudia Sheinbaum recalled that it was an operation with a component of hypocrisy, since proven ties between organized crime and PAN administrations existed, in particular that of Felipe Calderón, in reference to the case of the then Secretary of Public Security, Genaro García Luna. “Now they dare to talk about something that has no basis whatsoever.”

She stressed that any allegation of ties between a ruler and organized crime must be backed by solid proof and not by media accusations, and that it would fall to the prosecutor’s offices to investigate them. “There has to be proof, not announcements, not opinions,” she underscored, and she recalled that Morena proposed in Congress the creation of a commission of the National Electoral Institute to vet the candidates in coordination with the security agencies and the Attorney General’s Office—a proposal that was rejected by the opposition parties.

In that sense, the president questioned the hypocrisy of the right and of conservatism. “Which government had ties to a criminal group? Calderón’s […] But now they are the ones dressing up as saints or moralists.”

A right-wing government could hardly consolidate itself in the short term in Mexico, President Sheinbaum ruled out, considering that these political forces answer to “elite interests” foreign to the well-being of the population.

The country is doing well, the president insisted, pointing to the economic indicators as backing and calling on citizens to stay informed in the face of attempts to use fake news against governments. “We have to inform, inform, inform, inform,” so that citizens can tell the difference between real data and digital manipulation.

The post Sheinbaum Accuses AI and ‘Bots’ of Creating False Trends Against Her Administration appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

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