- The research shows that X has the highest proportion of disinformation actors accounting for 8.7 per cent of all active users.
- LinkedIn has the most rampant disinformation actors whereby actors create 6.6 posts per day.
Image: FILE
As technology is evolving each day, there is a continuous spread of fake news posts on social media.
At least 1.5 billion fake news posts of disinformation are spread every day on social media, a report reveals.
Research from the digital identity security specialists, ID Crypt Global, reveals that about five per cent of users are disinformation actors.
This translates to 516 million users actively spreading fake news and media.
According to the research, it is estimated that each disinformation actor creates an average of 3.9 posts per day.
Therefore, 1.5 billion pieces of disinformation are created or shared every day across all platforms.
ID Crypt’s research revealed that Facebook creates the most posts of fake news daily accounting for 1 billion posts.
The research shows that X has the highest proportion of disinformation actors accounting for 8.7 per cent of all active users.
LinkedIn has the most rampant disinformation actors whereby actors create 6.6 posts per day.
Others are Instagram and YouTube which produces the least amount of daily disinformation.
According to the research, Instagram performs relatively well in transparency and trustworthiness.
The platform has 2 billion users of which 5.2 per cent per cent are disinformation actors.
However, Instagram shares an average of just 0.9 daily posts creating a total of 94 million fake news posts per day.
YouTube, according to the research, remains the least troublesome platform.
With 2.5 billion monthly users, only 0.8 per cent of them are disinformation actors.
TikTok platform has around 1.5 billion monthly users with an estimated 5.5 per cent of them being disinformation actors.
ID Crypt Global CEO and Founder Lauren Wilson-Smith said the rate at which actors on social media platforms are creating disinformation is terrifying.
"We’re looking at more than 1.5 billion daily posts, every one specifically designed to indoctrinate the viewer’s mind into believing false news or supporting a false narrative," Wilson-Smith said.
Such posts can range from deepfake images and videos to news articles based on nothing but incorrect information and spurious lies," Wilson-Smith noted.
She added that something needs to be done to make it harder for disinformation to spread widely.
"The platforms need assistance from both governments and private companies," she said.
"We are proud to be doing our part by creating an image verification tool that enables news and picture agencies to put a digital stamp of verification on all of their images," she noted.
She said if the images are ever doctored and reposted, anyone that goes on to view that image will be instantly notified that it is not the original image and therefore its contents cannot be trusted.