A survey conducted globally that social platforms emerged as leading source of user distrust in the internet, with 75% of those surveyed citing Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms contributing to their lack of trust.
These findings were released as part of the 2019 CIGI-Ipsos Global Survey on Internet Security and Trust, conducted by Ipsos on behalf of the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), in partnership with the Internet Society
Facebook was the most commonly cited source of fake news, with 77% of Facebook users globally saying they witnessed fake news on the site, followed by 62% of Twitter users and 74% of other social media users.
About 10% of Twitter users said they closed their accounts in the past year as a direct result of fake news, while 9% of Facebook users reported doing the same.
78% people surveyed were concerned about their online privacy, with over half (53%) more concerned than they were a year ago, when the majority of those surveyed said that worry about their online privacy has risen year-on-year.
A majority of internet users around the globe supported efforts by governments and internet companies to combat fake news, from social media and video sharing platforms deleting fake news posts and videos (85%) and accounts (84%) to the adoption of automated approaches to content removal (79%) and government censorship of online content (61%).
Nearly seven in 10 people familiar with blockchain technology believed that it will affect every sector of the economy (68%), that it should be implemented as widely as possible (67%), and that it will have an impact equivalent to the advent of the internet (67%).
The 2019 CIGI-Ipsos Global Survey was conducted between December 21, 2018, and February 10, 2019, and involved 25,229 internet users in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Great Britain, China, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Republic of Korea, Sweden, Tunisia, Turkey and the US.