KATHMANDU: Most Nepali internet users are exposed to disinformation, a survey by the Center for Media Research – Nepal (CMR-Nepal) revealed.

The survey results show that 95.5 percent of internet users receive disinformation, largely through social media sites such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

Nepal Twitter Users Survey 2019 was conducted by CMR-Nepal in November 2019 and results are based on 542 valid responses.

“The results have some fascinating, and probably not so surprising, results,” says CMR-Nepal chairperson Rishikesh Dahal. “This is very concerning as almost all internet users are exposed to some kind of disinformation.”

“This shows there is an urgent need for the stakeholders to devise an effective and multi-layered plan to help citizens distinguish disinformation from valid information.”

A huge majority of the respondents, 95.5 percent, said they have seen disinformation online in the last seven days. Those who had not seen disinformation online in a week were just a handful.

And, for most of Nepalis, the main platform where they believe say saw disinformation is YouTube. A total of 85.6 percent said they saw disinformation on YouTube.