In Brazil, four out of 10 people claim to receive fake news every day. The number is even higher among Brazilians who worry about falling for fake news or that their relatives fall. In this scenario, the index rises to 65%.
The data is part of a survey carried out by the Poynter Institute, an American school of journalism and research organization, and is supported by Google.
In addition to Brazil, people from the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Nigeria, India and Japan were interviewed. The survey had 8,500 participants, more than 1,000 in Brazil.
Among those who accidentally shared wrong information at some point, 43% of Brazilians said they had already sent a post, video, image or news and only later realized that it was fake news.
According to the research, young people are the most likely to take on the sending, especially Generation Z – those between the ages of 18 and 25.
At the same time, the younger ones are the ones who most frequently check the information found on the networks, especially in search engines and messaging applications, such as Facebook, WhatsApp and Telegram.
To do this, they verify that the source is reliable, check the posting date and use Google to find out more about the post or who shared it.
The method most used by Brazilians to check news on Google is including words such as “fake news”, “propaganda” and “legitimate” along with the information, to identify possible fake news.
The platform also funds the Comprova project, a collaborative facts initiative formed by 43 media outlets led by the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism, Abraji.
When deciding whether the information is true, more than half of respondents in Brazil (55%) consider it important to know the person who posted the information.
The support of sources and facts and the logic of the conclusions are also crucial factors for Brazilians to decide whether certain content is false or not.
For the elections, the Superior Electoral Court maintains since 2020 a special page to deny fake news, called “Fact or Rumor”.
The initiative gathers verified news about votes, electronic voting machines and other disinformation to “confront the negative effects caused by disinformation related to democracy”, as stated on the TSE website.
Source: CNN Brasil
