Misinformation

Videos from independent news producers are more likely to cover subjects negatively and discuss conspiracy theories.

Republicans are about four times as likely as Democrats to say voter fraud has been a major issue with mail-in ballots.

73% of Americans express little or no confidence in tech companies to prevent the misuse of their platforms to influence the 2020 election.

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.

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.

Most Americans (71%) have heard of a conspiracy theory that alleges that powerful people intentionally planned the coronavirus outbreak.

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.

Americans’ confidence in checking COVID-19 information aligns closely with their confidence in checking the accuracy of news stories broadly.

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.

61% give equal attention to national and local coronavirus news.