InternetNZ survey shows Kiwis growing more worried about online 'misinformation'

Friday, 18 February 2022

Worries about misinformation are on the rise, an InternetNZ study suggests.

New Zealanders are significantly more worried about online ‘misinformation’ than they were a year ago, according to a study by InternetNZ.

Chief executive Jordan Carter believed mandatory rules were justified to help manage the way in which social media companies used algorithms to dish up content to internet users.

A common concern has been that such tools can draw people down “rabbit holes” where their prejudices and false assumptions are reinforced by increasingly extreme content that is dished up to them in the expectation that it is likely to appeal.

InternetNZ’s survey, which was based on interviews with 1001 adults, suggested 32 per cent of people were “extremely concerned” about online misinformation, with another 34 per cent “very concerned”.

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InternetNZ chief executive Jordan Carter believes the risks posed by algorithms may have got beyond the point where a voluntary code is the appropriate course of action.

The former figure was up 10 percentage points on a year ago.

Carter assumed that worries about Covid misinformation had driven up the figure.

InternetNZ’s findings appear to be supported by a separate study into media plurality carried out by research firm Sapere for the Ministry of Culture and Heritage that was released earlier this month.

Jordan Carter believes remedies for misinformation need not impinge on free speech.

Sapere quoted research suggesting 68 per cent of New Zealanders were concerned about what news on the internet was “real or fake” and that 94 per cent were worried about “spin and twisted facts”.

“75 per cent of surveyed New Zealanders considered false information about Covid-19 to be an ‘urgent and serious threat to NZ Society’,” Sapere’s report stated, quoting research by the country’s Classification Office.

Sapere said algorithms could limit the diversity of views that people were exposed to and risked creating “echo chambers where issues such as misinformation and polarisation become even more problematic”.

It said misinformation was likely to become more of a problem and suggested the Government could help address the risks by improving media literacy training in schools.

It also suggested a “voluntary code of practice” for technology companies aimed at improving their transparency and accountability, perhaps modelled on the Australian Code of Practice on Disinformation and Misinformation.

“Such a self-regulatory approach could be supported by the Government with a clear message that if there are not material improvements then the Government would consider moving to introduce regulation, with all the corresponding monitoring, investigations and potential sanctions that would entail,” it said.

But Carter believed mandatory rules were already justified specifically to address the issues caused by algorithms.

“I think we might be beyond voluntary rules. I think the problem is bigger than that,” he said.

“It is not about stopping people saying whatever they want. The problem is the way these systems are amplifying that and shape people’s perceptions of the world,” he said.

A starting point might be requiring transparency over how algorithms were used “so researchers and policy-makers can start to get to grips with the impact,” he said.

Despite the rising concern over misinformation, InternetNZ’s survey showed those polled overwhelmingly saw the benefits of the internet outweighing the negatives, with 86 per cent of respondents still feeling that way.

Other findings were that people had mixed views on whether the increased prevalence for working from home had improved work culture, with 19 per cent thinking it had, but 17 per cent thinking the opposite and an even larger group observing no impact.

The survey also showed Facebook tightening its grip over social media, with 67 per cent of those interviewed saying they used it every day, up from 61 per cent last year.