Fake news sources: 58% say social media influencers spread false info

FILE PHOTO / REUTERS

MANILA, Philippines — Over half of respondents in a recent study on fake news said that most of the false information about government and politics came from social media influencers, bloggers, and vloggers.

In a report released on Tuesday, Pulse Asia said that 69 percent of the respondents from the National Capital Region, 67 percent from Balance Luzon, 47 percent from the Visayas, and 43 percent from Mindanao consider bloggers and vloggers on social media to be the top source of misinformation.

Social media influencers, bloggers, and vloggers were also the top result across locales except for the Visayas, where 67 percent of the respondents believe that the national government is the leading group spreading fake news.

Nationwide, journalists are next to social media bloggers and vloggers, with 40 percent saying that they disseminate misleading information.

“Social media influencers, bloggers, and/or vloggers are seen by most Filipino adults (58%) as peddlers of fake news about government and politics. For a small majority of adults (58%), social media influencers, bloggers, and/or vloggers are responsible for spreading fake political news in the country – an opinion shared by most Metro Manilans (69%), those in the rest of Luzon (67%), and those belonging to Class ABC and D (69% and 58%, respectively),” Pulse Asia said.

“Most Visayans (67%) identify national level politicians as one of the entities spreading fake news about government and politics. However, in Mindanao, the most often mentioned responses are social media influencers (43%) and journalists (41%),” it added.

Regarding whether the respondents can ascertain that the information they are reading, hearing, or watching is fake, 44 percent said they are sure — composed of 36 percent who are somewhat sure and eight percent who are very sure.

Another 44 percent said they could not say whether they were sure or not sure, while only 11 percent said they were not sure. Of the unsure, 10 percent said they were somewhat unsure, while one percent said they were not sure at all.

Despite the presence of fake news in the country, 55 percent said they are very confident that Filipinos can detect fake news; 37 percent said they could not tell if they are confident or not confident, while seven percent said they are not confident.

“Most adults (55%) are confident in the ability of Filipinos to determine whether the political news they encounter is truthful or false. Confidence in the ability of their fellowmen to ascertain the truthfulness of political news they hear, read, and/or watch is the predominant sentiment not only in the country as a whole (55%) but also in Metro Manila (63%), the rest of Luzon (60%), Class ABC (56%), and Class D (57%),” Pulse Asia said.

“In the Visayas, Mindanao, and Class E, nearly the same percentages either share this opinion (46% to 49%) or are undecided on the matter (38% to 49%). At the national level, indecision is shared by 37% of the adult population,” it added.

The figures stated by Pulse Asia are part of the report they released earlier, where 86 percent of Filipinos believe that the proliferation of “fake news” is a problem in the country.

According to the survey conducted from September 17 to 21, only 14 percent of respondents across the country do not think that fake news is a problem.

READ: ‘Fake news’ a problem in PH? 9 in 10 Filipinos agree, says Pulse Asia 

Pulse Asia said the survey was conducted using face-to-face interviews with 1,200 respondents, with a margin of error of ± 2.8 percent at the 95 percent confidence level for nationwide figures. Subnational estimates have ± 5.7 percent error margins for Metro Manila, the rest of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.

Many observers, including those who monitored the recent 2022 national elections, blame social media for the rise in misinformation and disinformation, as details released online are not easily verifiable.

READ: Fact-checkers call preelection fake news a ‘firehose of falsehoods’ 

READ: Poll postmortem: Disinformation meets dissatisfaction 

A separate survey by Social Weather Stations last February 2022 also showed that 70 percent of Filipinos think fake news proliferation is a serious problem.

READ: 70% of Pinoys say fake news a serious problem – SWS 

JPV/abc