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A recent Yomiuri Shimbun survey found that 84% of voters are very much or somewhat concerned about the impact that disinformation on social media has on voting behaviors.
The newspaper conducted a nationwide opinion survey from March 10 to April 16 on the theme of social media and elections. Specifically, 36% of the respondents said they are very concerned about the impact, and 48% said they are somewhat concerned.
Many respondents also called for fact-checking of social media posts to be enforced, highlighting growing public concern over disinformation and the negative impact it has on election campaigns.
False or erroneous information was spread during the House of Representatives election and Hyogo gubernatorial election last year. Sixty-nine percent of the respondents said they did not trust election-related posts on social media, with 19% saying “not at all,” and 50% saying “not very much.”
Regarding posts by influencers, 63% of respondents said the posts had a significant negative impact on voting behaviors, surpassing the 21% who said the posts have no impact and the 12% who said they have a significant positive impact.
Meanwhile, 90% of the respondents called for tougher penalties for posts that aim to spread disinformation during election campaigns, and 88% supported the introduction of a mechanism in which social media platforms could deny payments to users found to have posted election-related disinformation. The results indicate that there is a strong majority in favor of some form of regulation.
Currently, nonprofit organizations, in many cases, fact-check information suspected of being false or erroneous, verifying that it is truthful and accurate, then publish the results. The human and financial resources at the organizations are said to be in short supply. Given the circumstances, 88% of the people surveyed thought that a stronger fact-checking system is necessary for elections.
Asked how often they use social media to obtain information about politics or elections, 8% said they used it “often,” and 21% said they used it “a little.” The most used platforms with multiple answers allowed were YouTube at 64%, X at 48%, Instagram at 21% and LINE at 20%.
The survey was conducted by mail on 3,000 eligible voters nationwide, with 2,012 responses received.
