A study carried out by Alpha Research for the Complutense University of Madrid assures this

Facebook is the social network that Spaniards associate most with hoaxes, according to two out of three people, data that places it ahead of other platforms such as WhatsApp and Twitter in spreading false news and that they see LinkedIn as the most reliable.

This is clear from a demographic study carried out by Alpha Research for the Complutense University of Madrid and the communication consultancy Torres y Carrera, which explores the phenomenon of ‘fake news’ or false news.

Among its conclusions, it stands out that 78.5 percent of those surveyed consider that social networks lie. Of the total, 52.3 percent believe that they lie at a high level and 26.2 percent, at a medium level.

Although television continues to be the preferred means of information for 77.3 percent of those surveyed, the situation changes radically among generation Z. 82.4 percent of young people between 16 and 24 years old inform themselves first throught social media.

The study shows that the generation that is least concerned that a news is false is the youngest. 36.4 percent of those surveyed between the ages of 16 and 24 are not very concerned that information they are interested in is false. The greatest concern is located in the age group 55 or over (78.7%).

Social networks appear in fourth place (29.9%) among the channels through which Spanish society contrasts the news, behind the official websites (65.1%), the digital press (50%) and the television (32.7%).

However, in the case of young people (16-24 years old), these social platforms rise to third place (43 percent) as a method to contrast information, above television and only 5 points from the digital press.

DATA BY SOCIAL NETWORKS

The study has also analyzed the data by platform to ask Spaniards which social network they most associate with hoaxes and false news. Two out of three respondents (66.8%) point to Facebook as the social network in which there are more hoaxes.

They are followed by the messaging application WhatsApp (55.1%), the ‘microblogging’ platform Twitter (49.2%) and the social network Instagram (35.3%). On the contrary, the most reliable platform is the labor social network LinkedIn, which only 7 percent of those surveyed consider to be moving fake news