AROUND 86 percent of Filipinos believe that fake or false news is a problem in the Philippines while close to seven out of 10 Filipinos have either heard, read or seen fake news in social media posts and television, the September 17 to 21 Ulat ng Bayan survey of Pulse Asia showed.
The survey, which involved 1,200 adult respondents with a ± 2.8 percent margin of error, found that 86 percent said fake news is a problem while 14 percent said it is not a problem. Those who said it is a problem was highest among those in Luzon (92 percent) and the socio-economic class ABC (93 percent).
An overwhelming majority from Metro Manila (87 percent), followed by Mindanao (81 percent) and the Visayas (81 percent) consider fake news a problem, along with the majority from socio-economic class D (87 percent) and E (74 percent).
Pulse Asia also found that 90 percent of Filipinos said they have either read, heard, and/or watched fake political news, with 26 percent saying they have heard or read about a few times a week; 25 percent a few times a month; 21 percent at least once a day; and 17 percent once a week.
Ten percent said they have never heard or read about it while one percent said they could not recall.
The survey firm said 55 percent of the respondents also expressed confidence in the ability of Filipinos to ascertain the truthfulness of political news they hear, read, and/or watch while 37% said they cannot say if their fellowmen can spot fake news and 7% lacks confidence in the ability of other people to determine the truth in what they hear or watch.
It also found that an almost similar number of Filipinos have read, heard or watched fake news coming from social media or the internet (68 percent) and television (67 percent), respectively.
Others got it from radio (32 percent), friends/acquaintances (28 percent), family/relatives (21 percent), leaders in their community (4percent), newspaper (3 percent), and religious leaders (1 percent).
Majority from Luzon (78 percent), the National Capital Region or NCR (76 percent), and the Visayas (60 percent), and a near majority in Mindanao (47 percent) said they got it from the internet or social media.
Majority from the Visayas (85 percent), NCR (77 percent), and Luzon (65 percent) and a near majority from Mindanao (47 percent) also said they got the misinformation or fake news from television.
Pulse also found that majority of Filipinos believe that those who spread false information and fake news are social media influencers/bloggers/vloggers (58 percent), followed by journalists (40 percent), national politicians (37 percent), local politicians (30 percent) civic leaders (15 percent), businessmen (11 percent) and academics such as professors and teachers (4 percent).
Belief that those who spread false information and fake news are social media influencers/bloggers/vloggers was highest in NCR (69 percent) and Luzon (67 percent) and classes ABC (69 percent) and D (58 percent).
