There are 14 and a half million Italians who use Facebook to get news. That is to say, 30.1% of 14-80 year-olds, but with shares that reach 41.2% among graduates, 39.5% in subjects between the ages of 30 and 44, and 33% of women. And yet, according to the Censis-Ital Communications Permanent Observatory on Communication Agencies in Italy, there is not only Facebook. In fact, 12.6% of the population acquires information on YouTube (and the share is 18% among young people) and 3% on Twitter (5% among the youngest).
Herbs, frankincense and 5G: here’s how YouTube spreads coronavirus hoaxes
by Bruno Ruffilli
While the web during the pandemic allowed Italians to build a new digital everyday life, there are, however, the contradictory aspects of using the network, some of which have a direct impact on information and fake news. 55.1% of Italians are convinced that digital technology foments hatred, resentment, conflict, with shares reaching 58.9% among women and 58.4% among young people under 34; and 22.6% are afraid of falling victim to haters.
Go where hate takes you
by Maura Manca
From the Observatory it emerges that Covid-19 has focused attention on the advantages of digital technologies, but has also underlined the risks that lurk in an unfiltered, proliferating, disordered communication, which has the epicenter of the danger of disinformation on the web and the circulation of fake news. 86.4% of Italians declare that to have quality information it is better to rely on paper and online newspapers, radio and television where professionals work, rather than social networks, where anyone is free to produce and disseminate news. It is no coincidence that 74.5% of Italians think that television is very or quite reliable, while only 34.3% consider social networks to be reliable. According to Attilio Lombardi, founder of Ital Communications, “the pandemic has plastically highlighted all the advantages of digital technology, at the same time highlighting the danger of getting information on social networks”. “But 4.5 million Italians get information only on these digital platforms, risking to take refuge in a sort of closed space in which they learn news only on the basis of their own tendencies and inclinations, to the detriment of the ability to discern what is happening. around us “, adds Lombardi. For Massimiliano Valerii, Director General of Censis, “users must be free to surf the web, but they must be protected from fake news and disinformation, which impact individuals and the community. The pandemic has triggered a communicative infodemic that has also fueled false information on the disease and vaccines, determining behaviors that have a decisive impact on the trend of infections. What happened reveals that rules and professionals are also needed on the web to ensure good communication “.
Social network
How Meta’s artificial intelligence works to detect fake news
by Francesco Marino
.