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Misinformation
Pew Research Center reports and data on the public’s experiences with, and views of, misinformation and made-up news.
Americans Plan To Follow Election Returns Closely; Biden Supporters More Confident Their News Sources Will Make Right Call
Biden supporters are more likely than Trump supporters to be confident their news sources will make the right call in announcing a winner. And partisans remain worlds apart on how well the U.S. has controlled the coronavirus outbreak.
5 facts about the QAnon conspiracy theories
Here are five facts about how much Americans have heard about the QAnon conspiracy theories and their views about them.
Two-thirds of U.S. adults say they’ve seen their own news sources report facts meant to favor one side
59% of Americans say made-up information that is intended to mislead causes a “great deal” of confusion about the 2020 presidential election.
Recent Publications
A Year of U.S. Public Opinion on the Coronavirus Pandemic
The biggest takeaway may be the extent to which the decidedly nonpartisan virus met with an increasingly partisan response.
Many Americans Get News on YouTube, Where News Organizations and Independent Producers Thrive Side by Side
Videos from independent news producers are more likely to cover subjects negatively and discuss conspiracy theories.
Political Divides, Conspiracy Theories and Divergent News Sources Heading Into 2020 Election
Republicans are about four times as likely as Democrats to say voter fraud has been a major issue with mail-in ballots.
Few Americans are confident in tech companies to prevent misuse of their platforms in the 2020 election
73% of Americans express little or no confidence in tech companies to prevent the misuse of their platforms to influence the 2020 election.
Most Americans Think Social Media Sites Censor Political Viewpoints
Republicans are far more likely than Democrats to say major tech companies favor the views of liberals over conservatives. At the same time, partisans differ on whether social media companies should flag inaccurate information on their platforms.
Americans Who Mainly Get Their News on Social Media Are Less Engaged, Less Knowledgeable
U.S. adults in this group are less likely to get the facts right about COVID-19 and politics and more likely to hear some unproven claims.
A look at the Americans who believe there is some truth to the conspiracy theory that COVID-19 was planned
Most Americans (71%) have heard of a conspiracy theory that alleges that powerful people intentionally planned the coronavirus outbreak.
Three Months In, Many Americans See Exaggeration, Conspiracy Theories and Partisanship in COVID-19 News
After three months of news and information, 64% of U.S. adults say the CDC mostly gets the facts about the outbreak right; 30% say the same about President Trump and his administration.
Around three-in-ten Americans are very confident they could fact-check news about COVID-19
Americans’ confidence in checking COVID-19 information aligns closely with their confidence in checking the accuracy of news stories broadly.
SXSW 2020 Online Session: Misinformation and the 2020 U.S. Election
Amy Mitchell (Pew Research Center), Philip Howard (University of Oxford), Jane Lytvynenko (Buzzfeed News) and Lori Robertson (Factcheck.org) discuss misinformation during the coronavirus outbreak, and ahead of the 2020 presidential election, as part of SXSW 2020's virtual sessions.
