Majority of social media influencers don't verify information before sharing it, study finds [View all]

[Nevilledog]

https://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/majority-of-social-media-influencers-don-t-verify-information-before-sharing-it-study-finds-1.7124079?__vfz=medium%3Dsharebar

NEW YORK - A majority of social media influencers don’t verify information before sharing it with their audiences, a study published Tuesday by the UN’s scientific and cultural arm found, underscoring concerns that some of the biggest online figures can uncritically spread misleading claims.

According to the UNESCO study, 62 per cent of surveyed creators said they don’t vet the accuracy of content before sharing it with their followers. Roughly one-third of influencers said they shared information without checking its validity if it originated from a source that they trusted, while 37 per cent said they verified information with a fact-checking site before circulation.

The study, which surveyed 500 digital content creators across 45 countries and territories in August and September 2024, included creators with more than 1,000 followers. While only 12 per cent of the surveyed influencers said they produced content about “current affairs/politics and the economy,” UNESCO warned that “the low prevalence of fact-checking highlights their vulnerability to misinformation, which can have far-reaching consequences for public discourse and trust in media.”

Rather than verifying information, more than four in 10 influencers said they evaluated a source’s credibility by “popularity” — the number of likes and views it had received — while one in five said trusted friends and experts were the most common factor in determining an online source’s credibility. Only 17 per cent said documentation and evidence was their top factor in gauging credibility.

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