CIRA says 70 percent of Canadians worried fake news could impact election

The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) released a research report detailing Canadians’ opinions and experiences with fake news.

The report includes a number of telling stats about the fake news problem, gathered from a survey of over 1,200 Canadian internet users in December 2018. For example, 75 percent of respondents said they came across fake news at least sometimes, and 57 percent said they’d been fooled by a fake news post.

Additionally, 70 percent of respondents harbour concerns that fake news could impact the outcome of the next federal election.

Along with fake news, the report also tackled cybersecurity and internet access issues.

Eighty-seven percent of survey respondents were concerned about a potential cyberattack against an organization with access to their personal data. Further, less than 20 percent of respondents said they would continue doing business with an organization if their personal data was exposed in an attack.

On the access side of things, 69 percent of survey respondents felt the high cost of internet services was hurting Canada’s economy and prosperity.

Additionally, 83 percent said they believed universal access to high-speed internet was necessary for Canada’s overall economic growth.

Finally, 70 percent of respondents said they thought the government should do more to support public access to high-speed internet.

To learn more about CIRA and the survey results, you can visit the website here.

Source: CIRA