Americans View False Info Online As Biggest Threat To US
By: Zachary Leeman (Mediaite)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
A new poll found that more Americans view the spread of false information online as a "major threat" than those fearing terrorism, the health of the global economy, and even infectious diseases.
Pew Research Center released a survey on Wednesday focused on Americans' evolving views of the media in today's digital age. The poll was conducted earlier this year among more than 9,000 people, and it carries a 1.3% margin of error.
According to the survey, 7 in 10 Americans view the "spread of false information" online as a "major threat." Another 24% view it as a minor threat, while 5% said they don't see it as a threat. The number of concerned respondents was higher than for terrorism, the state of the global economy, and more.
The poll found approximately 60% of Americans view terrorism and "the condition of the global economy" as major threats, while about 50% viewed "global climate change" and the "spread of infectious diseases" as major threats. Expanding on those results, 35% called terrorism and the global economy minor threats, while 29% and 44% viewed climate change and infectious diseases as minor threats.
The results of course change when politics and age get factored in, but a majority of Republicans and Democrats still view false information spreading online as a major threat. More than 60% of Republicans and people who lean Republican called it a major threat, and 80% of Democrats and those who lean left agreed.
More Republicans viewed terrorism as a major threat, but the other categories ranked lower among Republicans than false information — the spread of misinformation remained the biggest concern for Democrats.
When age was accounted for, it became clear that younger Americans are less concerned than older Americans, but a majority in all age groups still named false information as a big threat. According to the results, 81% of people 65 years and older are concerned, and 71% aged 50-64 agree. Those numbers drop to 68% and 62% for the 30-49 age and 18-29 age groups, respectively.
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I think this is a somewhat encouraging development but the situation is very very bad
thank this guy
fortunately, rush is where he can do the most good for america now ...
Rush Limbaugh - one of America's biggest enemies.
The rest of this thread was removed for no value and veiled personal comments.
Then those folks need to get a life. I guess you need more than two brain cells to rub together to sift through all the crap.
I dont understand. Why wouldnt rampant online misinformation be a threat ?
Most Americans have the intelligence to figure out what is misinformation, and who is spreading it on a daily basis.[✘]
This is clearly not true.
Did you wear a mask during COVID? Did you get the vaccine?
If you said no to either, why not?
I looked and I looked and found no source for your claim.
Yes, I wore a mask, but it apparently wasn't sufficient, since I still got Covid anyway and spent eight days in the hospital and am now on oxygen 24/7
Had the two initial shots and three boosters.... figured that's enough
Well if we're going to talk about "online misinformation", let's not forget all the "official misinformation" we all got during COVID.
So while there was an amazing amount of erroneous information online, there was also a significant amount coming from official channels.
You can't be that wrong that often and expect people to just do whatever you say.
No, they don't
During the 2016 campaign a Face Book Friend (now blocked) posted this meme of trmp in his military school uniform alongside a photo of Bernie Sanders being arrested during a Vietnam War protest. The meme said something to the effect that trmp was a true patriot because he served his country and Bernie was a traitor.
Another "friend" posted a comment agreeing with all of it. I came very close to calling them both a couple of morons. I know them both in real life, and believe me when I say I would not have lying.
I see shit my brothers post and the shit my spouse posts and yeah...teh average American tends to be low IQ when it comes to knowing truth from fiction
You're right. There are some who still think leftist propaganda sites like the Washington Post, MSNBC (now MSNOW), CNN, the Atlantic and the NYT are factual.
You would think they would be able to do some kind of research.
That explains it.
with maga's full fledged support of liars, frauds, criminals, traitors, autocrats, white supremacists, xtian nationalists and pedophiles, they should be officially labelled as domestic terrorists and suffer the 2nd class citizenship they've tried to project on others.
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Objective truth went out the window with "alternative facts" and "vibes".
How do we know the seeded article isn't misinformation created by an AI hallucination? Perhaps the concerns over misinformation should elevate expectations for source citations. But, now, even cited sources can be misleading.
The actual poll (there is a link in the seed) shows that a majority consider all five of the cited issues as global threats.
Too bad the poll doesn't provide any insights into public perception of domestic threats. Too bad the pollsters failed to ask if globalization, itself, is viewed as a threat. It is interesting that Democrats view these global issues as larger threats than do Republicans (except terrorism). From these results, why shouldn't we expect Democrats to be more concerned about globalization than Republicans?
When I use AI chabot I always look to see if the links are from legitimate sources.
To me, these AI chabots are a labor saving mechanism. Instead of spending 15 or 20 minutes researching and composing a post I can ask the AI and fact check what they say, and if I deem it acceptable, post it. Saves a lot of time and typing.
Every chatbot, even Grok, is far superior to right wing media.
Since we have two seeds on this story, I am posting the same comment here, that I did on the other, if that’s ok.
If people really viewed misinformation as a threat, they would investigate the things they are told instead of accepting them without question.
Every one of these lies has been told by Trump, and only within the last year. And this is just a fraction of the lies I could have listed. And he is President of the United States. If you are genuinely concerned about misinformation, start with him.
good job. I will be interested in the replies.
Agreed.
The list goes on, but I think you get the point.
I'm curious, which Democratic politician running for office said all those things you listed?
It seems like you're comparing the list above made up mostly of things that came directly out of the Republican Presidents mouth to a list of random leftist internet conspiracy theories. I mean I get that you want to compare conspiracy theories instead of the mouths they came out of, but I think that difference between the two lists makes a HUGE difference. It's easy to dismiss the mad ravings of some partisan hack lunatic online, not so much when it's the actual President making such spurious claims.