Australians vote Facebook worst social media platform for misinformation, study by Dr Sora Park and Dr Caroline Fisher from UC finds

News consumption on the platform has dropped dramatically in recent years, a survey from media researchers Professor Sora Park and Dr Caroline Fisher from the University of Canberra found.

Nearly one in three Australians surveyed said they worry about misinformation on Facebook more than any other site.

"We did ask which platform are they most concerned about experiencing misinformation generally and about Covid. And overwhelmingly people nominated Facebook," she said, adding it is also the most used site.

"And this is true in other countries globally, Facebook was nominated the platform of most concern."

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The number of people using the platform to read news fell to 33 per cent this year, from 45 per cent in 2016.

"That's quite a big drop over the past few years," said Dr Fisher.

"We don't know exactly why that is, but we can quite confidently suspect that is linked to a concern about misinformation."

She said it could also reflect Facebook's drop in popularity among young people, who are more likely to consume news through social media.

"Facebook is not as popular among Gen Z [people born between 1995 and 2010] anymore and Youtube is more popular," she said.

Participants were surveyed before the tech giant shut down Australia's access to news for eight days in February this year, Dr Fisher said.

The study of Australians' news habits also found while most remain unwilling to pay for online reports, those aware of the media industry's financial struggles were more likely to pay.

More than 2000 Australian adults were surveyed on how they access news, how they feel it is presented and more in the seventh annual Digital News Report: Australia.

University of Canberra academics and their peers from the University of Oxford in the UK compiled the report.

- with Australian Associated Press

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