Survey Reveals Wide Trust Gap Regarding Sources of Political Information Online; Misinformation Concerns Shared Equally Between Both Groups

The Yomiuri Shimbun

15:44 JST, April 28, 2025

A nationwide opinion poll conducted by The Yomiuri Shimbun found that people who actively get their information on political and election matters from social media tend to trust what they see on those platforms, regardless of age.

In contrast, respondents who do not use social media place little trust in such information, exposing a clear attitudinal divide.

Twenty-nine percent of all respondents said they “actively use” social media to obtain political or election news. When divided by age, the highest percentage in this group, called as the active use group, were aged 18-39 (the young age group) at 48%, followed by those aged 40-59 (the middle-aged group) at 33% and those aged 60 and older (the elderly group) at 16%.

When asked which services they use (multiple answers allowed), X, formerly Twitter, ranked highest among young age group, while YouTube topped the list for middle-aged and elderly group.

Overall, 29% said that election-related information circulating on social media is “trustworthy.” Within the active use group, however, the figure jumped to 64%. Broken down by age within the active use group, 64% of the young age group, 66% of the middle-aged group and 61% of the elderly group expressed their trust in what they see online.

Conversely, 84% of respondents who do not actively seek political information on social media (the non-active group, 70% of the total) said such information is “untrustworthy,” with skepticism greater among older respondents.

During last year’s House of Representatives election, short videos uploaded to YouTube, TikTok and other platforms lasting from several seconds to a few minutes drew heavy attention. Edited clips of campaign speeches that were uploaded by audience members also went viral, helping parties such as the Democratic Party for the People, which embraced these tactics, to make significant seat gains.

Asked whether they would “like to use” short videos to help them decide how to vote, 59% of the active use group said yes, with a majority of all groups giving this answer. Moreover, 78% of active users said political parties and candidates “should actively use social media” during campaigns, far outstripping the 26% in the non-active group who felt the same.

Concerns about how misinformation on social media could affect voting behavior were shared almost equally: 86% of the active use group and 84% of the non-active group said they were “worried.”

Tsukasa Tanihara, an associate professor at Ritsumeikan University who specializes in social informatics, commented: “Regardless of generation, the number of people turning to social media for election information will continue to grow, and parties will place even greater strategic emphasis on these platforms. When consuming information on social media, users need to distinguish between purely factual content and the opinions of whoever is posting it.”