More Americans Get Their News From Facebook, But Do They Trust It?

More Americans get their news from Facebook than any other source, but, at the same time, they say they just don’t trust social media sites for political and election news, a Pew Research Center survey indicated Wednesday.

The survey of more than 12,000 adults was taken Oct. 29-Nov. 11 and indicates distrust of social media is bipartisan, with Facebook, Instagram and Twitter the most distrusted.

“Overall, more Americans express distrust than trust in all six of the social media sites asked about here. And what is striking in this era of partisan polarization in news habits is that they are more distrusted than trusted by Democrats and Republicans alike – and both by large margins,” Pew said.

Just 17% of those queried said they trusted YouTube, 15% trusted Facebook, 12% trusted Twitter, 7% trusted LinkedIn and Reddit, and just 6% trusted Instagram.

Facebook was the most-used site for political and election news but 59% of respondents said they distrust what they find and nearly half (48%) said they distrust Twitter. Instagram was distrusted by 42%. Those who said social media is mainly where they go for news also said they’re not particularly concerned about the influence made-up stories could have on this year’s election.

“While 37% of those who cite social media as their most common platform say they are very concerned about the influence of made-up news during the election, half [50%] of other U.S. adults say the same,” Pew said.

In 2016, a fake news story on social media that alleged Hillary Clinton was involved in a child-trafficking ring operating out of a Washington pizza parlor prompted Edgar Maddison Welch, 31, of North Carolina to shoot up the restaurant. He is serving four years in prison.

Twenty-five percent of those queried said they use Facebook for news, compared with 20% who use the major commercial broadcast networks and NPR, 20% use the New York Times, 17% read the Washington Post and 13% read the Wall Street Journal. YouTube came in at 17% and Twitter at 14%. The other sites examined were in single digits.

“More than half of those who say social media is their most common platform [56%] say they trust the information they get there a lot or some, compared with 20% of other U.S. adults who rely on other platforms. And 12% of those who rely on social media for political news trust it a lot, compared with 2% of those who rely on other platforms,” Pew said.