88% of Filipinos aware of fake news on social media – Pulse Asia

A large majority of Filipinos are aware of the proliferation of fake news on social media, a Pulse Asia survey showed Wednesday.

In its September 2018 survey, Pulse Asia said 88 percent of Filipinos who use the Internet were aware of fake news on social media, with 79 percent of them saying that they considered fake news to be widespread on social networking platforms.

“Awareness of fake news on social media is reported by majorities of those who access social media accounts through the internet, not only at the national level (88%) but across geographic areas and socio-economic groupings as well (84% to 93% and 75% to 96%, respectively),” the survey said.

The survey also showed that nearly half or 47 percent of Filipinos access the Internet and almost all or 94 percent of them do so using their mobile phones.

Meanwhile, 98 percent of the Filipinos use the Internet for purposes of checking their social media accounts, the survey noted.

“Use of the internet is reported by majorities only in Metro Manila (65%) and the best-off Class ABC (66%),” Pulse said.

“On the other hand, only about a third of those in the Visayas and the poorest Class E use the internet (35% and 32%, respectively),” it added.

The survey was conducted from September 1 to 7, 2018, using face-to-face interviews based on a sample of 1,800 representative adults 18 years old and above. It had a ± 2.3% error margin at the 95% confidence level./cbb