Every year CIRA commissions an annual survey exploring how Canadians use the internet and publishes the insights in a new edition of Canada’s Internet Factbook. This year, CIRA is publishing a series of blog posts based on the findings of the 2024 Canada’s Internet Factbook survey. The blog that follows below is the second of four in the series.
How do Canadians access the news?
Long gone are the days when Canadians relied on a morning newspaper conveniently delivered to their doorstep, or the nightly TV news as their go-to source of information about current events. Today, as traditional print and broadcast media continue to lose popularity and influence, most have pivoted to online news sources.
According to research conducted for the latest Canada’s Internet Factbook, more than three quarters of us (76 per cent) report getting our news online. Although just four per cent of Canadians say they have a paid digital newspaper subscription, the top method for accessing news involves visiting news and media sites (35 per cent), followed closely by Google searches about specific news events (33 per cent). Since Meta’s decision to remove news content from its Canadian services in response to Bill C-18, the Online News Act, just 15 per cent of Canadians list the dominant social media platform as one of their top news sources, down sharply from 34 per cent in 2023.
Beyond these popular methods for staying informed, many Canadians are increasingly turning to social media platforms as an alternate source of information about what’s going on in the world. Just under one tenth of us (9 per cent) list other social media sites/platforms as one of the top methods for accessing news online.
X, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and dozens of other social platforms all feature information and commentary on current events, politics, the economy, social issues and more. Although traditional media companies are jumping into the mix with their own official channels and content on these platforms, it’s the influencers, self-proclaimed pundits and citizen journalists—some with tens of millions of followers—that are arguably having the biggest impact.
How do Canadians handle misinformation?
The tsunami of digital information coming at us every day—some of it fact-based, much of it not—makes for an extremely fractured and chaotic information ecosystem. Not surprisingly, many Canadians are caught up in a web of doubt, struggling to make sense of it all and wondering at times how it’s even possible to distinguish fact from fiction anymore. It’s a troubling trend, particularly at a time when agreeing on a straight set of facts is crucial for overcoming the many crises we face politically, environmentally, economically and socially.
It’s not that Canadians are overly trusting about the information they get online, either. When asked which social media services are likely to provide accurate information, 32 per cent of Canadians selected none and 37 per cent said they didn’t know, which is not exactly a ringing endorsement. However, in this climate of uncertainty, one of the key challenges every internet and social media user encounters on almost a daily basis is trying to determine whether a particular piece of information in their social feed is fact-based or not. No matter how media-literate we may be, sometimes we get fooled.
In this year’s survey, about one in 10 Canadians report having liked, shared or re-shared fake, misleading or untrue content. Another 13 per cent admitted they ‘maybe’ had and 15 per cent said they weren’t sure whether they had or not. The good news is that when we realize we’ve unwittingly shared bad information, 90 per cent of us report taking some corrective action. When asked what actions they take, 47 per cent said they removed the incorrect information, 43 per cent told people it wasn’t true, 42 per cent unshared it and 23 per cent wrote a follow-up post or comment to clarify what they’d posted.
The rapid rise of new technologies, especially artificial intelligence (AI), is making it even harder for Canadians to distinguish truth from falsehood online. Take “deepfakes” for example; this technique, made possible by AI, is a form of mis- or disinformation that involves digitally manipulating existing video footage to fabricate things that people did not do or say or incidents that did not actually take place.
While 25 per cent of Canadians say they don’t know whether they have encountered deepfakes online in the last year, about 20 per cent say that they have. About half of Canadians (51 per cent) view deepfakes as a threat to elections in Canada and other democratic countries. It’s an idea that is worth remembering given the share of Canadians (29 per cent) that report using social media or messaging apps for political reasons, such as getting election information (17 per cent) or learning about political movements or networks (15 per cent).
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Charles Noir leads CIRA’s policy development, advocacy and Net Good program. Prior to joining CIRA, Charles spent over 15 years working for various Canadian government departments and agencies where he made significant contributions to policy development related to the internet, international telecommunications, cybersecurity and technology. He has extensive experience in leading international negotiations and providing policy advice to senior decision-makers.
