Americans Agree Misinformation Is a Problem, Poll Finds | New policies

By AMANDA SEITZ and HANNAH FINGERHUT, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) – Almost all Americans agree that the rampant spread of disinformation is a problem.

Most also believe that social media companies and the people who use them are largely responsible for the situation. But few are very concerned that they could be responsible themselves, according to a new poll from the Pearson Institute and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Ninety-five percent of Americans identified misinformation as a problem when trying to access important information. About half largely blame the U.S. government, and about three-quarters point to social media users and tech companies. Yet only 2 in 10 Americans say they are very worried about having personally disseminated disinformation.

More, about 6 in 10, are at least somewhat concerned that their friends or family members have been part of the problem.

For Carmen Speller, a 33-year-old graduate student in Lexington, Ky., The divisions are evident when discussing the coronavirus pandemic with close family members. Speller trusts COVID-19 vaccines; his family does not. She believes the misinformation her family saw on television or read on questionable news sites influenced them in their decision not to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

In fact, some of her family thinks she’s crazy to trust the government to get information about COVID-19.

“I have the impression that they think I am misinformed. I’m the one who blindly follows what the government says, it’s something I hear a lot, ”Speller said. “It’s gotten to the point where it creates a lot of tension with my family and some of my friends as well. “

Speller isn’t the only one having these disagreements with her family.

The survey found that 61% of Republicans say the U.S. government has a large share of responsibility for spreading disinformation, compared to just 38% of Democrats.

However, there is a more bipartisan agreement on the role social media companies, including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, play in the spread of disinformation.

According to the poll, 79% of Republicans and 73% of Democrats said social media companies had a great deal or a great deal of responsibility for disinformation.

And this rare kind of partisan deal between Americans could cause problems for tech giants like Facebook, the largest and most profitable social media platform, which is under fire from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers.

“The AP-NORC poll is bad news for Facebook,” said Konstantin Sonin, professor of public policy at the University of Chicago and affiliate of the Pearson Institute. “This clearly shows that the attacks on Facebook are very popular, even when Congress is divided 50-50, and each side has its own reasons.”

At a congressional hearing on Tuesday, senators vowed to hit Facebook with new regulations after a whistleblower testified that the company’s own research shows its algorithms amplify misinformation and content that harm children.

“It took advantage of the spread of disinformation and disinformation and the spread of hate,” Senator Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Said at a meeting of the Senate Trade Subcommittee on Protection of consumers. Democrats and Republicans ended the hearing by acknowledging that regulations must be introduced to change the way Facebook amplifies its content and targets users.

The poll also found that Americans are willing to blame just about everyone but themselves for spreading disinformation, with 53% saying they are not concerned about spreading disinformation.

“We see this often where people are very worried about disinformation but they think it’s something that happens to other people – other people are being fooled, others are spreading it,” said Lisa Fazio, a psychology professor at Vanderbilt University who studies how misrepresentation spread. “Most people don’t recognize their own role in this. “

Young adults tend to be more concerned about sharing lies, with 25% of 18-29 year olds very or extremely worried about spreading misinformation, compared to just 14% of adults 60 and over . Sixty-three percent of seniors are unaffected, compared to about half of other Americans.

Still, it’s the elderly who should be more worried about spreading fake news, as research shows they are more likely to share a false news website article, Fazio said.

Before sharing things with her family or friends on Facebook, Speller does her best to make sure that the information she shares on important topics like COVID-19 has been peer reviewed or comes from an institution. credible medical. Still, Speller acknowledges that there must have been a time or two that she “liked” or hit “share” on a post that wasn’t quite properly filled out on all the facts.

“I’m sure it happened,” Speller said. “I tend not to share things on social media that I haven’t found on verified sites. I’m open to that if someone said to me, “Hey, that’s not right,” I would think, okay, let me check that out. “

The AP-NORC survey of 1,071 adults was conducted September 9-13 using a sample drawn from NORC’s AmeriSpeak probability-based panel, which is designed to be representative of the US population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.

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