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Australians distrust Facebook and social media while retaining faith in the ABC, claims survey

The ABC is the nation’s most trusted media brand while Australians increasingly mistrust social platforms and commercial outlets, pollster Roy Morgan Research has found.

Surveying 1,100 Australians, the Media Net Trust Score Survey found Facebook was by far the most distrusted media brand, a claim that comes as the social platform launches an advertising blitz to win back user trust

However, Australians said they didn’t trust most local media outlets as the entire sector scored a net negative rating of 7 with only Fairfax, SBS and the ABC having a positive score. The commercial TV networks recorded negative scores between minus 6% and minus 10%.

The score is derived by subtracting the percentage of people who distrust an outlet or industry from those who trust it. In the case of social media, a whopping 47% distrusted the industry with only 5% trusting the platforms – giving the sector an overall score of minus 42%.

Facebook is the most distrusted media brand in Australia with an NTS of minus 39 per cent, Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine pointed out: “This is where we get a powerful sense of how toxic Social Media in Australia really is.”

“Distrust is where our deepest fears, pain, and betrayal surface – the shock of discovering we were foolish to trust too much.

“And nowhere is that sense of betrayal more profound than with Social Media.

“Australians told us that their distrust of Social Media is being driven by fake news, manipulated truth, false statistics and fake audience measurement. They are feeling the shock of discovering they were foolish to trust the global platforms too much.”

Of the other media sectors, the survey found television had an overall trust rating of minus 16%, minus 13%, internet minus 7%, magazines minus 4% and radio minus 2%.

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