More Filipinos aware of fake news on social media – Pulse Asia

MANILA, Philippines – More Filipinos are aware of the presence of fake news on social media, according to Pulse Asia Research, Incorporated’s September 2018 Nationwide Survey on Social Media Use, released on Wednesday, October 10.

The nationwide survey was conducted from September 1 to 7 through face-to-face interviews with 1,800 adults.

According to the survey, 47% of Filipinos use the internet, majority of whom access it through their mobile phones, and majority of whom use it to check their social media accounts.

Of the 47% that use the internet, 98% do so to check their social media accounts. Eighty-eight percent of them are aware of fake news on social media, with 79% saying they think it’s widespread on those platforms.

By contrast, in June 2017, out of the 37% of total respondents who use the internet for social media, 74% said they read, heard, or watched at least one piece of fake news on the platforms they used. Fifty-nine percent thought fake news was widespread on these platforms.

The level of awareness in 2018 increased not only on the national level, but also across geographic areas and socio-economic groupings.

Aside from awareness of fake news, more Filipinos also said that their political views have been swayed because of something they saw, read, and/or listened to on the internet in 2018.

In 2017, 39% of the respondents who used social media said they changed their views on politics and government because of it.

In 2018, 51% of the respondents who used social media said their political opinions have been swayed by it.

The Pinoy internet user

According to Pulse Asia, the survey respondents in Metro Manila (65%) and in Class ABC (66%) were the majority of those who accessed the internet. By contrast, only a third of those in Visayas (35%) and economic class E (32%) used the internet.

Aside from mobile phones, Filipinos also access the internet through computers and internet cafes (13%), home computers or laptops (11%), tablets (8%), and their office computers or laptops (2%).

They use these devices to check social media, to read, watch, and/or listen to other things of interest to them (39%), to read, watch and/or listen to the news (29%), and to send, receive, and/or read emails (20%).

To do all these, they access the internet more than once a day (44%) or two to 6 times per week (20%).

Which social media platforms do Filipinos frequent the most? All of them have a Facebook account (100%), while 17% use Instagram, 11% use Twitter, 3% use LinkedIn, and 2% use Pinterest.

The nationwide survey has a ± 2.3% error margin at the 95% confidence level. Subnational estimates for the geographic areas covered in the survey have the following error margins at 95% confidence level: ± 6.5% for Metro Manila, ± 3.5% for the rest of Luzon, ± 5.2% for Visayas and ± 4.7% for Mindanao. – Rappler.com