UN concerned that most influencers don’t verify their information

This finding emphasises concerns about the spread of disinformation and misleading claims being made on social media – on topics as wide-ranging as business, politics, climate change, race and immigration. 

The Unesco study, titled ‘Behind the screens: insights from digital content creators; understanding their intentions, practices and challenges’, found that 62% of the surveyed influencers don’t vet the accuracy of content before sharing it with their followers. Only 37% said they verified information with a fact-checking site before circulation. 

Rather than verifying information, more than four in 10 influencers said they evaluated a source’s credibility by ‘popularity’ – the number of likes and views it had received – and one in five said trusted friends and experts were the most common factor in determining an online source’s credibility. Seventeen percent told the researchers that documentation and evidence was their most important factor in gauging credibility. 

Study has highlighted an ‘urgent need’ 

“The prevalent lack of rigorous critical evaluation of information highlights an urgent need to enhance creators’ media and information literacy skills, including identifying and using reliable fact-checking resources,” Unesco states in the report. 

The study surveyed 500 digital content creators across 45 countries and territories in August and September 2024. 

More than a quarter of the creators were not aware of regulations covering their work in the country where they operated. Only half of the creators surveyed properly disclosed sponsors or other funding sources to their audiences. In some countries influencers are required to disclose if their post is sponsored. 

“The low prevalence of factchecking highlights their vulnerability to misinformation, which can have far-reaching consequences for public discourse and trust in media,” the report says. 

You can read more about the study here.