UNESCO report finds that 6 out of 10 influencers don’t use basic fact-checking practices

A new survey from UNESCO found that 62% of digital content creators don’t use basic fact-checking practices — which is particularly unsettling when you consider recent data showing that 1 in 5 Americans get their news from “news influencers” online.

The “Behind the Screens” survey, conducted by the U.N.’s educational and cultural agency with help from Bowling Green State University, was conducted in eight languages and received responses from 500 influencers from 45 countries. The study found that nearly two-thirds of influencers “lack rigorous fact-checking protocols, despite their significant impact on public discourse.”