Governments and public health officials have used Twitter, WhatsApp, Facebook and other social media to reach large numbers of people, quickly and efficiently, with information on how to stay healthy and limit the virus's spread.
On the positive side, most respondents who are aware of social media say it "makes people more informed about current events" (87% on average across nine countries surveyed in 2019) and "helps people have more impact on political processes" (72%).
On the negative side of the ledger, however, strong majorities say social media usage "makes people more likely to believe false news" (74%) and "makes people more intolerant" (60%).
Six in 10 respondents (61%) attribute misinformation to "social media users" in general, while substantial portions blame government officials (53%), the news media and journalists (50%), and activists and interest groups (44%).
Across the nine countries, only 34% agree that "information shared on the internet and social media is dividing (our country), so access should be regulated by government", while 51% endorse unrestricted access.
