Social Media, Politicians, Governments Identified as Top Threats to Trustworthy News: IPIE

According to the International Panel on the Information Environment (IPIE), social media platform owners, politicians, and governments pose the greatest threats to a reliable online news landscape.

IPIE's survey ranked social media owners as the top concern, followed by both domestic and foreign governments, as well as politicians.

The findings were based on input from 412 academic researchers, with most responses coming from the US and western Europe, though countries like China, India, Nigeria, and Brazil were also represented.

The report does not name specific tech owners, but co-author Philip Howard raised concerns about Elon Musk's ownership of X, citing reports of self-promotion, and TikTok, owned by ByteDance, due to fears of potential influence from the Chinese government.

The report also warns that many politicians have exploited conspiracy theories and misinformation for political advantage, undermining trust in credible information sources and democratic institutions.

Furthermore, nearly two-thirds of the experts surveyed believed that AI-generated content—videos, voice, images, and text—has negatively impacted the information environment.