Fake News Statistics By Social Media, Region And Facts (2025)
Updated · Apr 10, 2025
WHAT WE HAVE ON THIS PAGE
- Introduction
- Editor’s Choice
- Key Facts
- Share of Consumers Witnessing False Information on Certain Topics
- Frequency of Encounter With Fake News
- Share of Respondents Who Feel Capable of Discerning Fake News on Social Media Platforms
- Share of People Who Accidentally Shared the Fake News
- Trust in Media By Region and Age Demographics
- Impact of Fake News on the Global Economy
- Fake News Statistics By Social Media
- Efforts to Combat Fake News
- Conclusion
Introduction
Fake News Statistics: Fake news refers to information that is untrue and circulated deliberately intending to deceive the reader. The dissemination of fake news statistics has increased tremendously over the past few years with the development of social media and other online platforms.
It has become a serious concern in various countries as of the year 2024 for aspects such as trust among the citizens, politics, and the social conduct of the people. There are concerted efforts by both the authorities and technology industries to contain the menace of false information. This article will show the fake news statistics and facts below, showing how prevalent this modern issue is today.
Editor’s Choice
- A staggering 71% of respondents participate in tension-filled political arguments as a result of speaking with other people within their social circles and the conclusions of family members.
- In the second quarter of 2020, Facebook also deleted around 7 million posts that were found to include disinformation.
- 56% of Facebook users, especially those exposed to disinformation that aligns with their worldview, have difficulty distinguishing real news from fabricated news, per social media statistics.
- Asians in America, for example, hold divergent views about the role of media in the spread of fake news.
- According to fake news statistics, only 30% of Caucasian Americans think the media is a fake newsagent.
- Furthermore, a significant 32% of the older population believes that national television networks are feeding people lies.
- It is claimed that nearly 41% of American citizens try their best not to watch any news at all.
- 21% of respondents of the newspaper’s readers rated the New York Times as highly accurate.
- An overwhelming 83% of the respondents believe that the constant circulation of untrue information is detrimental to the country’s political environment.
- In France, a fake news website managed to get more than 11 million interactions in a single month.
- Fake news statistics carried out by the Pew Research Center in 2022 found that about 48% of the participants accepted that they had viewed some news articles or images that they later realized were not genuine.
- 64% of these social media news consumers experienced such instances.
- 34% of the adult population of America admitted that they posted a picture or news article that turned out to be fabricated.
- A 2020 study conducted by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism reported that Facebook users had seen more than 4.3 billion instances of false or misleading news in the ten months before the US presidential elections.
- As reported by a study at MIT in 2018, fake news articles were 70% more likely to be shared on Twitter than factual news articles. This study was based on the analysis of 126,000 stories, which were aggregated and released over 11 years by 3 million users.
- The 2022 Digital News Survey regarding fake news reports a high incidence of anxiety regarding false information on the internet, with 37% of respondents from 46 countries mentioning this. Only 26% of respondents trusted news originating from social media networks, which was the least reliable information source.
- Research from Cambridge University in 2021 found that social media platforms were inundated with false narratives and conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 pandemic, which were viewed numerous times.
- In another fake news statistics survey, 51% of the participants were willing to admit their worries that political fake news campaigns may hurt them, with special terrors in India, where social networks have fueled the dissemination of information and fake news.
Key Facts
- Since 2016, a study found that over 50% of internet users across 23 countries use social networks to keep updated.
- Young people are more influenced by misinformation than older people, especially because they are active users of social media. This weakness was observed during the COVID-19 outbreak.
- In terms of the ‘latest news’ hyperbole, global survey statistics show that many Gen Z and Millennial news about COVID-19 consumers did not share fake content or reported it, while others shared it too.
- This is the case with public health misinformation, which is even worse because of its disruptive nature. It includes untested treatments and conspiracy theories. Even after the peak of the epidemic, such information concerning COVID-19 was circulated widely.
- Fake news statistics from early 2023 discovered that well over 40% of news consumers in the US experienced false information on the COVID-19 pandemic in the week before the research was conducted.
- In Slovakia, 45%, the highest of the surveyed nations, stated they had come across false information concerning the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
- According to the fake news statistics, more than 33% of the surveyed children aged 12-15 claim that they have encountered untrue or misguiding information on the Internet or social networking sites in the past year.
- Another 34% needed clarification, indicating the extent of doubt in the reliability of the information they encountered.
- The investigation likewise looked at how children accepted false news, and differences were noticed in their reactions for age. For one, older kids reported the most suspicious things to teachers, friends, or other relatives.
- Nevertheless, to most kids, the dilemma would simply be ignored or acted upon, with the tendency to disregard the content even more prevalent among 15-year-olds.
- In a worldwide assessment, more than 70% of adults in Great Britain acknowledged fears around the issue of disinformation through social media- which was the 3rd highest in the ranking of 18 countries studied vs the average global trends.
- Dismissing this issue was especially hindered in older adults, as 80% of the population above 55 years had this concern.
- Of those surveyed within the age bracket of 65 and above, the primary level of concern was health and medical misinformation, with the next being misinterpretation of politics and society in the UK.
- With the 2024 global election scheduled, increasing attention has been drawn to the possibility that misinformation may affect election campaigns and the voting itself, calling for more awareness.
- The percentage of Americans who are very confident about their ability to detect fake news: 23% of Americans think that fake news causes a lot of confusion; 67% of Americans have shared fake news on purpose; 38.2%
- A whopping 88% of Indian first-time voters understood that misinformation is an alarming concern in society.
- India, with over 300 million WhatsApp users, is the largest forwarding market in the world as well.
(Reference:statista.com)
- Fake news statistics show that a considerable portion (38%) of respondents across different countries reported experiencing political fake news up to a week before the survey.
- Also, misinformation concerning the COVID-19 outbreak was still pertinent.
- Misinformation is critical, especially when it touches on sensitive aspects like health, wars, or politically contested positions.
- As we march toward 2024, which is expected to be full of political upheaval due to numerous elections taking place worldwide, there is a more pressing need for trustworthy and factual data.
- The assessment of several news outlets in the 2024 presidential elections in America varies.
- Republicans and Independents are particularly more pessimistic about election-related news than Democrats, where a little over four in ten are confident in most of the media.
- While one in three adults felt these sources could be trusted to deliver proper election coverage, social media came in last.
- In another poll, it was demonstrated that older people have the least trust in the news media regarding purchasing advertising for elections.
- This knowledge can assist publishers in keenly segmenting their updates and campaign advertising approaches.
Frequency of Encounter With Fake News
(Reference:statista.com)
- According to a digital news consumption survey regarding fake news statistics carried out in India in March 2023, more than 60% of the participants reported experiencing some level of exposure to fake news online during the given period.
- A mere 3% of the interviewees asserted that they had never seen any such content. Lately, there have been increasing incidences of fake news-related incidents in the Indian context.
(Reference:statista.com)
- In a survey related to fake news statistics conducted in France in February, 74% of the participants said they were able to discern fabricated news on social platforms.
- It was observed that a higher number of younger respondents had more self-efficacy regarding discrimination based on misinformation than older respondents, with only 17% of younger individuals reporting that they were not able to do so.
(Reference:statista.com)
- According to fake news statistics in December 2020, there is a percentage of 38.2% of American news consumers have inadvertently leaked fake news or misinformation across social media platforms.
- The same percentage claimed that they didn’t leak such content, while 7% were not sure whether they had shared unreliable information on these sites or not.
- Fake news has been a growing concern in the American media context, where it can broadly be described as news that contains non-factual information.
- It is common in the form of false news articles or engaging title-only articles, but disinformation spread cannot only be associated with the use of social networks.
- Interestingly, fake news has also been present in media advertising.
- 47% of Americans claimed that they had seen fake news in newspapers and magazines as of January 2019.
Trust in Media By Region and Age Demographics
- In 2024, only 36% of respondents indicated they had any level of trust in connecting with any form of news available on social media. On the contrary, traditional means of receiving news, such as newspapers and television news services, are predominantly trusted by the world population at the rate of 54%.
- Finland topped the chart in terms of trust in the media, with a Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism survey conducted in 2022 showing that 66% of the respondents trusted their news sources most of the time or all of the time. On the contrary, only 24% of the study participants in Greece felt such confidence in the media’s reporting.
- Fake news statistics reported a decrease in media trust in several countries. For example, only 29% of respondents in the United States reported that they trusted the news always or mostly, down from 40% in 2019.
- According to the 2021 study by the Pew Research Center, more U.S. Democrats than Republicans said they trusted news media. Only 10% of the Republicans in the survey said that they have confidence in the media, while this number was 73% in the case of Democrats.
- Again, the same scholars point out that younger Americans are more cynical about the media than their elder counterparts. Only 16% of the 18- —to 29-year-old age group had faith in the media, compared to 33% of people aged 65 years and above.
- In 2021, research by the European Broadcasting Union indicated that public service media (PSM) in Europe are more trustworthy than any other commercial media.
- In 19 out of 33 countries surveyed, more than half of the respondents indicated that they trust PSM, while commercial media earned a similar level of trust in only six countries.
- Fake news statistics observed that affluent and educated people had a lot more confidence in public service media than the lower classes.
- For instance, in Germany, individuals with a higher education degree were more likely to show trust in the PSM than those who had just finished high school, where 51% of the population reported trust.
- An analysis performed by the Edelman Trust Barometer in 2021 indicated that the pandemic boosted media trust in some countries if previous statistics had shown lower levels of such at 35% a year earlier in 2020 and 42% in 2021 in the US alone.
Impact of Fake News on the Global Economy
| Economic sector | Economic Losses Caused By Fake News Worldwide |
| Stock market | $39 billion |
Financial misinformation | $17 billion |
| Reputation Management | $9.54 billion |
Public Health Misinformation | $9 billion |
| Online Platform Safety | $3 billion |
Political Spending | $0.4 billion |
| Brand safety | $0.25 billion |
(Source:demandsage.com)
- According to fake news statistics carried out by the cybersecurity company CHEQ and the University of Baltimore, the global economy loses about $78 billion annually because of online fake news.
- The report further states that fake news contributes to a $39 billion loss in the stock market every year.
- Financial Deception: $17 billion
- Reputation Management: $9.54 billion
- Health Misinformation: $9 billion
- Platform Safety: $3 billion
- Political Spending: $0.4 billion
- Brand Safety: $0.25 billion
Fake News Statistics By Social Media
(Source:statista.com)
- A survey carried out in 47 markets for the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 notes that TikTok and X were the hardest social media platforms for assessing news content reliability.
- The attached graph shows that in early 2024, almost every fourth participant reported finding it at least fairly easy to distinguish between true and false information on these two platforms.
- Other platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, showed similar results, with 21% and 20% of the respondents sharing the same concern, respectively.
Efforts to Combat Fake News
There is an upward trend within governments, technology companies, and non-profit organisations on the combating of disinformation. In the year 2024:
- Meta (Facebook) and Google invested over $2 billion in the prevention and correction of misinformation.
- European Union allocated $1.2 billion to $1.5 billion to fight disinformation, an increase of 27%.
- Social media platforms such as Twitter and TikTok invented new software systems and AI techniques that can cut the spread of disinformation by approximately 40%.
Conclusion
The ongoing war against fake news is an issue of worldwide proportions that will keep gaining more ground in 2024. Misinformation covers trust, politics, health, and even the financial sector, owing to the connectivity of billions of people over the internet. It is worth mentioning, however, that advances are being made through education, technology, and regulation; counterfeiting or the threat it poses is still rampant.
Fake news statistics reveal that in terms of dollars, misinformation impacts the economy by billions, and being able to tell what is real and what is false amongst all the information will always be a problem, especially in this era. No doubt that even in the year 2024, the war against false information is not won.
Sources
FAQ.
Fake news is an erroneous report deliberately published with the primary intention of misinterpreting the readers’ interpretation.
A 2022 statistic reveals that 56% of all Facebook users cannot tell the difference between real news articles and those fabricated, even amidst their own beliefs and the disinformation directed at them.
The financial impact of fake news is quite staggering. Activities reported to cost 78 billion dollars each year across the globe are incurred. This especially relates to 39 billion dollars in stock market losses, 17 billion dollars worth of losses attributed to fake financial news, and 9 billion dollars in losses incurred by fake health news.
Trust in news media differs by region and demographics. For instance, only 36% of the respondents trust social media as a news source, while the figure is 54% for traditional media. Younger people tend to be more cautious about the media, with only 16% of Americans aged between 18 and 29 trusting news sources as opposed to 33% of those aged 65 years and above.
Major resources will be directed against misinformation in 2024. For example, Meta and Google have spent more than $2 billion on that issue. The European Union has earmarked from $1.2 billion to $1.5 billion for these activities, a 27% increase.
Barry is a technology enthusiast with a passion for in-depth research on various technological topics. He meticulously gathers comprehensive statistics and facts to assist users. Barry's primary interest lies in understanding the intricacies of software and creating content that highlights its value. When not evaluating applications or programs, Barry enjoys experimenting with new healthy recipes, practicing yoga, meditating, or taking nature walks with his child.
