A third of Americans have fallen for Russian disinformation — and for other false online claims.
An online survey carried out between February and March this year by leading market research and analytics organization YouGov, commissioned by data analysis and news rating firm NewsGuard, presented a nationally representative sample of 1,000 respondents with 10 false claims that have spread widely online. These included three that originated from or were mainly spread by Russian media outlets.
Respondents were asked to mark each claim—all of which have been authoritatively and widely debunked—with a response of “True,” “False,” or “Not Sure.”
And, the researchers found, Americans are falling for Kremlin disinformation to an alarming degree, along with other false claims relating to health and medicine, elections and international conflicts.
Indeed, of the 10 false presented, 78% of respondents believed at least one, and fewer than 1 in 100 managed to correctly identify all 10 claims as false.
A quarter believed, for example, that up to half the U.S. aid money given to Ukraine was stolen by Ukrainian officials for personal use. More than half incorrectly thought that Ukraine sold Hamas weapons that had been donated by the U.S.
Meanwhile, fewer than half of respondents correctly identified as false the claim that COVID-19 vaccines have killed between 7.3 and 15 million people worldwide, while 1 in 5 said they believed the claim to be true.
These claims were made on the basis...
With a growing share of insurance executives viewing generative artificial intelligence as a tool for streamlining and improving functions like fraud detection, Deloitte predicts that AI technolog...