Canadians worried about online misinformation, as it becomes increasingly harder to spot: report

A young person uses a smart phone in Chicago. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP

TORONTO - A new survey reveals most Canadians regularly see misinformation online and nearly half say they are finding it harder to decipher fact from fiction.

According to Statistics Canada, 80 per cent of Canadians say they have encountered news or information online they suspect to be misleading or false at least once a month, with 47 per cent saying they are finding it increasingly difficult to distinguish false information from genuine news.

“What I think is more worrying is not the misinformation people see online that they recognize as misinformation, it’s the misinformation they see online and actually believe,” said Angus Lockhart, a policy analyst at The Dais, a think tank at Toronto Metropolitan University. “The bigger issue is when people don’t realize they’re looking at misinformation.”

Lockhart says misinformation is a problem that is becoming not only more prevalent but also easier to create thanks, in part, to advances in artificial intelligence.

“We’re seeing very quick rises in the number of deepfakes that are posted and shared online. And that’s one of the scariest ones, because that technology is only getting better and only making it harder to judge what’s real and what’s fake,” Lockhart said.

The Statistics Canada survey also found 61 per cent of Canadians surveyed say they are “very” or “extremely” concerned about online misinformation, yet experts argue the government and big tech companies have been too slow to act.

“Unfortunately, there is a lack of scrutiny on these big tech companies,” said Ahmed Al-Rawi, a communications professor at Simon Fraser University. Al-Rawi says social media platforms have been ineffective at controlling harmful content on their own and wants the government to enact legislation to bring about stricter rules.

“The only language they understand is the language of financial penalties,” he said. “So once you send warnings regarding these penalties, I think they will start listening.”

Experts encourage people to fact-check information they find online, especially on social media, but acknowledge this is becoming harder to do. They also say people who believe misinformation are less-likely to check the accuracy of what they’re reading.

“There’s definitely a correlation there between people not wanting to put the effort in and then ending up believing fake news, fake information,” said Lockhart.

The survey also looked at where Canadians get their news or information: 66 per cent say they get it from news organizations, 62 per cent from close contacts, 54 per cent from social media platforms and 52 per cent from television programming. For young Canadians aged 15 to 34 years old, social media was the most prevalent source of news or information, at 78 per cent.