Military Times survey: ‘Alarming’ percentage accept conspiracies

Most Military Times readers believe they’ve been targeted with disinformation from malicious groups, politicians and news media, and they think the responsibility to stop its spread falls to everyday people, a recent survey found.

Readers are dubious about information posted to social media and confident in their ability to spot disinformation — but they don’t have faith in their neighbors or in politicians to do the same, the results said. In a test designed to see whether readers could differentiate between real and false information online, about 90% succeeded.

While most respondents called out false claims about the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol being a “PsyOp,” or psychological operation carried out by the government, there were still hundreds who answered that the claim was credible, said Scott Parrott, a professor in the journalism department at the University of Alabama who helped put together the questionnaire.

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Bugs Marlowe

Article URL : https://www.militarytimes.com/flashpoints/extremism-disinformation/2024/03/05/military-times-survey-alarming-percentage-accept-conspiracies/