62% of the respondents in the first-ever FEO Pre-Election Survey have said that they noticed fake news on social media websites

62% of the respondents in the first-ever Fijian Elections Office Pre-Election Survey have said that they noticed fake news on social media websites while 38% have not.

This was highlighted by the Supervisor of Elections, Mohammed Saneem who says that 95% of the respondents suggested that they have come across fake news or misinformation from Facebook, 2% suggested Instagram, 2% LinkedIn and 1% Twitter.

Saneem says of the 95% respondents who said Facebook had the most fake news, 67% of them rely on social media for their election information.

He says 80% of the respondents have indicated that they do not share information on social media based only on the headline without reading the full article.

Saneem says 72% of the respondents indicate that they verify information on social media either ‘Sometimes’, ‘Most of the time’ or ‘Always’ while 28% indicate they never verify information on social media regarding elections.

The Supervisor says the 28% is a worry.

He says this demonstrates a greater level of responsible online behaviour.

Saneem says 56% of the respondents reported that they got most of the election information from social media, 22% reported getting their information from radio, 16% from television and 6% from newspapers.

He says a greater number of unemployed people appear to obtain most of their information from the radio while 64% of employed respondents get their information from social media.

The survey was conducted between the 21st of January to 11th February 2022.

There were 9,576 survey respondents where 5,438 were females and 4,138 were males.