May 24, 2019
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


A significant majority (64%) of Europeans surveyed reported believing they see fake or purposefully misleading news on a weekly basis over the past year, with 26% saying they see such news on a daily basis , a new YouGov survey commissioned by Avaaz has revealed. 

Conducted in eight countries - France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Poland, Hungary, Netherlands and the UK - t he poll also highlights that 73% of people who say they’ve seen fake news, say they saw fake news on Facebook . 

Following a wide-ranging Avaaz investigation, Facebook’s massive disinformation network takedown continues . In just the last few days, Facebook has removed 55 new pages with a total of more than 3 million followers. That means that as a result of  the Avaaz investigation, Facebook has now removed a total of 132 pages detailed in the investigation, with content viewed more than 762 million times over the past three months.

Christoph Schott, campaign director at Avaaz said : “These results are frightening. A majority of Europeans surveyed say they see fake news on a weekly basis. Disinformation networks are spreading hate and anger to millions of Europeans every single day. Facebook has taken down some of these networks, but it’s only the tip of an iceberg that could sink European democracy.“

The key results of the poll: 

• 64% of Europeans surveyed believe they have seen fake news at least once a week over the past year (66% FR, 81% IT, 78% ES, 51% DE, 57% NL, 84% HU, 69% PL, 60% GB)
  • 26% believe they have seen fake news every day over the past year  (26% FR, 31% IT, 38% ES, 16% DE, 21% NL, 51% HU, 20% PL, 24% GB)
  • 73% of Europeans surveyed who believe they have seen fake news in the past 12 months, have seen fake news on Facebook 
• 45% of Europeans surveyed report having seen or heard stories about the “white European population being replaced through mass migration with non-European people, specifically Arab and middle eastern” 
  • Of those who saw the story, 40% believe it to be true 
  • 79% of Europeans who consider themselves “very right-wing” and have seen or heard this story believe it to be true (the highest percentage across all political affiliations)
• 64% of Europeans have heard or seen stories about the “refugee and migrant families in general receiving more social support than national families”
  • Of those 64% who saw the story, 48% believe it to be true
  • 84% of Europeans who consider themselves “very right-wing” and have seen or heard this story believe this is true (the highest percentage across all political affiliations)
• 30% of Europeans  have heard or seen stories about “Christians having to limit their practice of their religion to avoid offending Muslims” 
  • Of those 30% who saw the story, 35% believe it to be true
  • 58% of Europeans who consider themselves “very right-wing” and have seen or heard this story believe this is true (the highest percentage across all political affiliations)

The poll comes as Facebook responds to Avaaz’s investigation into fake news in Europe by taking down pages. Facebook’s latest takedown removed pages that shared content including anti-EU, anti-immigrant, anti-Islam, anti-vaccine, or conspiracy-theories. In the UK, eight new pages were removed , with titles including “Exposing Radical Islam,” “Stop the Invasion of Europe/People’s Voice,” and “SIUK Stop the Islamization of the United Kingdom.” This last page had a logo that read: “Islamophobic and Proud Of It.” In Italy, one page ‘E Sti Cazzi’ that appeared to be a general content page, but regularly shared far-right and clickbait content in a coordinated manner, was removed . It had more than 1.4 million followers (more than the official Five Star Movement page) and over 3 million “interactions” in the last three months.

In the Netherlands, 15 pages were removed , boasting almost half a million followers . Some of these pages shared posts that referenced "the great replacement," and the fight against "white genocide."  

Facebook also removed 13 new pages from Germany, 7 new pages from France, and 5 new pages from Spain . All the pages removed by the social media platform as a result of this investigation spread disinformation or used disinformation tactics to amplify their messages, including the use of fake accounts, spamming, misleading page name changes, or  suspected coordinated inauthentic behavior.

Avaaz is urging social media platforms to acknowledge the scale of disinformation on their platforms and take responsibility to “correct the record” for users. Under the proposals, anyone exposed to disinformation in their news feed should be notified and presented with information that is accurate and verified by independent fact-checkers. Avaaz polling shows 86.6% of people in Europe support the idea.

This investigation is part of a campaign by Avaaz to fight the spread of disinformation ahead of the EU elections. A team of investigative reporters, researchers and data analysts are monitoring disinformation operations across the continent, focusing on identifying fake news before it spreads, rooting out the networks driving it and working with platforms and governments to correct false information. 

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All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc.  Total sample size was 9,172 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 15th - 21st May 2019.  The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all COUNTRY adults (aged 18+).

Note to editors:

• Poll is available on request.
• The previous report release by Avaaz earlier this week is available here.
• Avaaz representatives are available for interviews in Brussels (ENG, FR, IT, SPA, GER) before and during the elections.

• Contact: 
  • media@avaaz.org
  • On site: 
    • Andrew.legon@avaaz.org / +44 7429 865 292 
    • Julie@avaaz.org / +33 676 477 259 
    • Ahmed@avaaz.org / +1 313 247 3679