A study held in early 2024 found that more than a third of surveyed consumers in selected countries worldwide had witnessed false news about politics in the week running to the survey. Suspicious or false COVID-19 news was also a problem. False news False news is often at its most insidious when it distorts or misrepresents information about key topics, such as public health, global conflicts, and elections. With 2024 set to be a significant year of political change, with elections taking place worldwide, trustworthy and verifiable information will be crucial. In the U.S., trust in news sources for information about the 2024 presidential election is patchy. Republicans and Independents are notably less trusting of news about the topic than their Democrat-voting peers, with only around 40 percent expressing trust in most news sources in the survey. Social media fared the least well in this respect with just a third of surveyed adults saying that they had faith in such sites to deliver trustworthy updates on the 2024 election. A separate survey revealed that older adults were the least likely to trust the news media for election news. This is something that publishers can bear in mind when targeting audiences with updates and campaign information. Distorting the truth: the impact of false news Aside from reading (and potentially believing) false information, consumers are also at risk of accidentally sharing false news and therefore contributing to its spread. One way in which the dissemination of false news could be stemmed is by consumers educating themselves on how to identify suspicious content, however government intervention has also been tabled. Consumers are split on whether or not governments should take steps to restrict false news, partly due to concerns about the need to protect freedom of information.

A survey conducted in December 2020 assessing if news consumers in the United States had ever unknowingly shared fake news or information on social media found that 38.2 percent had done so. A similar share had not, whereas seven percent were unsure if they had accidentally disseminated misinformation on social networks.

Fake news in the U.S.

Fake news, or news that contains misinformation, has become a prevalent issue within the American media landscape. Fake news can be circulated online as news stories with deliberately misleading headings, or clickbait, but the rise of misinformation cannot be solely accredited to online social media. Forms of fake news are also found in print media, with 47 percent of Americans witnessing fake news in newspapers and magazines as of January 2019.

News consumers in the United States are aware of the spread of misinformation, with many Americans believing online news websites regularly report fake news stories. With such a high volume of online news websites publishing false information, it can be difficult to assess the credibility of a story. This can have damaging effects on society in that the public struggled to keep informed, creating a great deal of confusion about even basic facts and contributing to incivility.