Off the wire
• Lula da Silva accepts to be presidential candidate despite prison sentence  • Hollywood actor criticizes U.S. gov't for pulling out of Paris climate agreement  • Lula da Silva accepts to be presidential candidate despite prison sentence  • Hollywood actor criticizes U.S. gov't for pulling out of Paris climate agreement  • Lula da Silva accepts to be presidential candidate despite prison sentence  • Hollywood actor criticizes U.S. gov't for pulling out of Paris climate agreement  • Lula da Silva accepts to be presidential candidate despite prison sentence  • Hollywood actor criticizes U.S. gov't for pulling out of Paris climate agreement  • Lula da Silva accepts to be presidential candidate despite prison sentence  • Hollywood actor criticizes U.S. gov't for pulling out of Paris climate agreement  
You are here: 　

Italy regulator says 2017 was "worldwide year of fake news"

Xinhua,February 21, 2018 Adjust font size:

ROME, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- On a global level, 2017 was the year of fake news and Italy was no exception, national communications regulator AgCom warned in a report out Tuesday.

"Worldwide, 2017 was the year of the emergence of pathological phenomena such as fake news, and ...the increasing spread of disinformation through online platforms," the report said.

AgCom found that while a majority of Italians still rely on traditional media such as TV, radio and newspapers, a growing number of people are turning to social media for information.

The report, based on a 2017 survey of 14,000 people, found that 80 percent of respondents check the news every day. Of these, 70 percent rely on TV, 42 percent go on the internet, 25 percent turn to the radio, and 17 percent read a newspaper on a daily basis.

Of the Italians who go online, a growing segment is relying on so-called "algorithmic sources" -- such as search engines, blogs, and social media -- rather than consulting established news organizations, according to the report.

That segment rose from 62 percent in June 2015 to 70 percent in April 2017, AgCom found.

Relying on online algorithms for news is dangerous because it leads to "pathological forms such as polarization, which sparks the formation of ideological bubbles on the web leading to the spread of fake news, hate speech and disinformation", the report said. Enditem

 

Related News & Photos