Fake news sours trust in social media sites

Ofcom finds fears of online misinformation have led public to revert to more traditional sources for news

FEARS over fake news have resulted in fewer people using social media to follow current affairs compared with a year ago, according to a report from Ofcom.

The survey by the media watchdog shows public trust in the impartiality and accuracy of news sources found on platforms such as Twitter and Facebook has fallen since 2019. Rampant disinformation online has been highlighted by MPS as a threat to democracy, and big tech companies have been criticised in the past for inaction over false stories proliferating online.

The declining trust in popular social media platforms to host reliable news sources has resulted in the public reverting to traditionally trusted media such as news magazines and television, according to Ofcom research.

Amid concerns about misinformation the proportion of people using forums such as Facebook to keep up with current affairs has fallen from 49 per cent in 2019 to 45 per cent in 2020, with only a third of the surveyed public finding sources on these platforms to be trustworthy.

MPS scrutinising the media have welcomed the trend away from fake news for the sake of truth, democracy, and national security.

In 2019 the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) select committee concluded fake news put democracy “at risk” due to the “relentless targeting of citizens with disinformation”.

Since then the perceived accuracy and impartiality of social media sources have fallen from around 37 per cent to around 33 per cent.

Julian Knight, the chairman of the DCMS committee, told The Daily Telegraph: “This is yet another wake-up call to the social media companies.

“They need now to understand that it is in their interests to be subject to strong regulation when it comes to the spread of harmful, deliberate disinformation.

“Clearly, public trust is being eroded in the information carried by the likes of Twitter, Facebook and Youtube and these platforms only have themselves to blame.”

Instead of using unreliable sources on social media, Ofcom found audiences seeking news from traditional television, the BBC in particular, other internet sites, and the radio.

According to Ofcom’s annual report, the public were now less inclined to share videos and articles they had found on social media sites.

Tobias Ellwood, the defence committee chairman, warned that ill-intentioned actors can “set hares running” online with these “artificial trends”.

“Perhaps people are becoming wiser to it,” he said.

“It is a concerning time when it comes to the deluge of information out there. So much is read into a single tweet.

“I am pleased to see this perhaps recalibrating itself from the avalanche of news that the internet churns up.”

Television remains the most popular medium to receive news, with 75 per cent of people using it to keep informed, followed by the internet with 65 per cent, and then radio with 42 per cent.

An Ofcom spokesman described the resulting trend away from social media platforms, saying that: “Fewer people are using social media to get their news than last year and they are less inclined to share videos or articles from these platforms too.”

BBC One was found to be the channel of choice for a majority (56 per cent) of adults.

Despite a drop in use of social media, Facebook has remained the third mostpopular single source of information behind BBC One and ITV.