62% of the respondents in the first-ever Fijian Elections Office Pre-Election Survey have said that they noticed fake news on social media websites while 38% have not.
This was highlighted by the Supervisor of Elections, Mohammed Saneem who says that 95% of the respondents suggested that they have come across fake news or misinformation from Facebook, 2% suggested Instagram, 2% LinkedIn and 1% Twitter.
Saneem says of the 95% respondents who said Facebook had the most fake news, 67% of them rely on social media for their election information.
He says 80% of the respondents have indicated that they do not share information on social media based only on the headline without reading the full article.
Saneem says 72% of the respondents indicate that they verify information on social media either ‘Sometimes’, ‘Most of the time’ or ‘Always’ while 28% indicate they never verify information on social media regarding elections.
The Supervisor says the 28% is a worry.
He says this demonstrates a greater level of responsible online behaviour.
Saneem says 56% of the respondents reported that they got most of the election information from social media, 22% reported getting their information from radio, 16% from television and 6% from newspapers.
He says a greater number of unemployed people appear to obtain most of their information from the radio while 64% of employed respondents get their information from social media.
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The survey was conducted between the 21st of January to 11th February 2022.
There were 9,576 survey respondents where 5,438 were females and 4,138 were males.
