Pinoys use beliefs, virality to assess online info – poll

MANILA, Philippines — A significant chunk of Filipino online users rely heavily on personal beliefs and virality of posts in assessing information they see on the internet, a new survey conducted by Pulse Asia showed.

Although a large majority consider disinformation a big problem in the country, the survey found that only 35 percent would use news sources to determine what online information to believe.

Thirty-three percent said they would use personal beliefs, while nine percent cited numbers of likes or share and opinion of family or friends.

The survey also asked how likely they are to believe information that are shared by many people online.

Forty-one percent said they would believe the information, while 15 percent said they would not believe information shared by many people online.

The remaining 44 percent said they cannot say if they would believe it or not.

The results were part of Pulse Asia’s survey on internet and social media use, which was conducted from June 28 to July 6.

It found that 72 percent of the 2,400 respondents see disinformation as a big problem in the Philippines, while four percent said it is small. Twenty-four percent were undecided.

Asked if they encounter two different versions of information, more than half or 56 percent said they would find another trustworthy choice.

Nineteen percent said they would believe in the information more people agree with, while 14 percent said they would believe the first information they encountered.

The remaining 11 percent said they would just accept that there are two versions of the stories.

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