Four in ten UK adults say that they have encountered misinformation or deepfake content just in the past four weeks, according to new research from Ofcom.

Among those who have encountered false or misleading information, seven in ten (71%) say they have seen it online. Four in ten (43%) say they have seen misinformation on TV, and one in five (21%) via print newspapers or their associated websites/apps.

Men, young adults, people from higher socio-economic backgrounds, minority ethnic and LGBTQI+ groups, as well as those with mental health conditions are more likely to say they have come across misinformation.

The research took place in the week before the General Election (4 July) and found that respondents were most likely to have seen false or misleading information about UK politics, including the general election (39%), followed by international politics and current affairs (33%), and health and medical information (25%).

According to the Alan Turing Institute, however, AI did not seem to play a role in any misinformation campaigns ahead of the UK General Election.

The news comes as Ofcom announces the appointment of Lord Richard Allan, already a member of Ofcom’s board, as chair of the new Disinformation and Misinformation Advisory Committee. The regulatory body is also launching a recruitment drive to appoint more committee members with expertise in the field.

The newly created committee is required to advise Ofcom on some of its key duties under the Online Safety Act, including on how to deal with misinformation in regulated services, how Ofcom requires transparency from these services, and how it promotes media literacy.

Misinformation 

Ofcom’s research revealed that for over three quarters of UK adults (77%), it is important to check different sources for news, while seven in ten (71%) acknowledge that online information will always be a mix of reliable and unreliable posts.

Almost half of people (45%) feel they can confidently judge whether sources of information are truthful. But only 30% feel they can confidently judge whether an image, audio, or video has been generated by AI.

When asked about how they deal with misinformation in practice, nearly half (47%) say they ignore the content and simply move on. A quarter (26%) say they use a search engine to find a more authoritative source, and a similar proportion (24%) say they’d check the information on a trusted news website.

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“There is a growing body of research and expertise on the challenges posed by misinformation and potential responses to it,” Lord Richard Allan said.

“Our new committee will draw on this knowledge to provide the best possible advice to Ofcom and other stakeholders.”

Confidence in the News

Despite claiming to look at trusted news sites, these may be understood to be few and far between for the public. A significant number of people are sceptical of conventional news production processes.

Around four in ten (44%) agree with the statement that the more a story is edited, the less likely it is to be true, while a similar proportion think that important stories are deliberately covered up by traditional news sources (42%).

Similarly, only a third (32%) agree that journalists follow codes of practice.

This mistrust manifests in other ways too, the research found. When asked to decide which statements about current affairs were true or false, three in ten UK adults believe that there is a single group of people who secretly control the world together (29%), and a similar figure believe that there is significant evidence of large-scale election fraud (30%).