Study in Switzerland finds over half of participants see fake news as 'major' social issue

More than half of respondents regularly encounter misleading information on social media

More than half of research participants in Switzerland consider disinformation a "major" social problem, expressing concern over misinformation, according to a study released Monday.

The findings were published in the University of Zurich's Research Centre for the Public Sphere and Society 2026 Quality of the Media Yearbook, Swissinfo reported.

Some 56.5% of the participants view "fake news as a major social problem," the report noted.

The latest percentage represents a "significant" increase compared with five years ago, it added.

The study found that more than half of respondents regularly encounter misleading information, particularly through social media, video-sharing platforms, and artificial intelligence chatbots.

Some 42% were classified as "news-deprived," referring to people who rarely follow current affairs or rely on fragmented information from social media, making them more vulnerable to conspiracy theories.

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Researchers found that relying exclusively on platforms such as TikTok and Instagram offered no greater protection against conspiracy theories than avoiding news altogether.

While overall news quality remained stable in 2025, media diversity declined, with 44.7% of national political coverage appearing across multiple German-language publications.

The study also found that 57.7% of respondents considered public broadcasting important or very important.

Meanwhile, technology platforms captured up to 2.5 billion Swiss francs ($3 billion) in annual advertising revenue, while domestic media revenues fell to 1.94 billion francs ($2.3 billion).

The researchers called for countermeasures, such as media vouchers for young adults.