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But what is 'news' on social media in the first place?
MANILA, Philippines – A Pulse Asia Research Pulso ng Bayan Survey showed that news about candidates was considered the most helpful source of information by almost all registered voters, or 93%, when it came to deciding whom to elect in the midterm polls held on May 12.
News is seen as the first-ranked (81%), second-ranked (64%), and third-ranked response (41%) in the May 6-9 survey, which used multi-stage sampling and conducted through face-to-face interviews with 1,200 adult Filipinos who were registered and likely to vote.
Television news was cited by 72% of voters while internet news was mentioned by 66% of those surveyed. News on the radio was mentioned by 24% of voters, while newspaper news was cited by 2% of voters.
Notable, however, is the breakdown of what constitutes information or news from the internet.
Among those cited as internet sources, social media was identified as most helpful by 65% of voters, with Facebook being the leading social media source (61%) and YouTube ranking second at 18%.
TikTok, Instagram, and X or Twitter ran single-digit numbers at 4%, 1% and 0.3%, respectively.
Among the internet sources, online news sites and podcasts were also mentioned. Overall, 4% cited online news sites, while 0.4% cited internet podcasts as a helpful source of information when making choices for whom to vote for in the May 2025 elections.
No distinction
But the survey does not appear to distinguish between the types of content shared on social media.
It’s not clear whether the respondents were referring to news on social media from news organizations and journalists, or from a candidate, a political party, or a propaganda or disinformation actor.
The report did not show a drilling down that would determine which, if any, of the internet news sources overlapped or clashed with one another.
Between February 2025 and May 2025, the survey noted changes in overall public opinion regarding news sources deemed helpful by voters in their decision-making for the May 2025 elections.
Among the biggest gainers, news on television was up (+7 percentage points), while news on the internet also saw an increase in (+19 percentage points). This particularly related to social media (+18
percentage points) and with Facebook as the specific social media platform (+19 percentage points). News on radio also went up 5 percentage points.
The following lost percentage points during the same period, according to the Pulse survey:
- commercials (-15 percentage points), especially those on television (-12 percentage points)
- billboards, posters, and other campaign materials (-6 percentage points)
- a candidate’s participation in debates (-24 percentage points), in particular those on television (-20 percentage points) or the internet (-5 percentage points)
- personal visits by a candidate to a voter’s place (-12 percentage points)
More Filipinos rely on the internet than before
Prior Pulse Asia surveys on social media use noted how more people were aware of disinformation or fake news, even though the technologies by which such disinformation is made — such as the introduction of artificial intelligence — have evolved since 2018.
In 2018, Pulse Asia released a nationwide survey on social media use. This was conducted from September 1 to 7 of that year, with face-to-face interviews done with 1,800 adults. In it, 47% of Filipinos use the internet — with the majority using their mobile phones to access it — and 98% use it to check their social media accounts.
According to this survey, 88% were aware of fake news on social media, with 79% saying they thought it’s widespread on those platforms.
These numbers were higher compared to a June 2017 survey, when out of the 37% of total respondents who use the internet for social media, 74% said they read, heard, or watched at least one piece of fake news or disinformation on the platforms they used. At that time, 59% thought fake news was widespread on these platforms.
In 2021, 48% of Filipino adults got their political news from the internet based on a Pulse Asia survey conducted in September of that year based on face-to-face interviews of 2,400 representative adults 18 years old and above.
The 2021 survey, done in the middle of the pandemic, also noted messaging applications were frequently used at the time and became a vector for the dissemination of disinformation. Additionally, a Rappler report released in February 2021 found misinformation and disinformation in the Philippines often spread unchecked in messaging apps — particularly Messenger, WhatsApp, and Viber — because these are private spaces, and are thus harder to fact-check.
Facebook and YouTube remained top of the pile when it came to places users visited in the 2021 survey. According to that survey, 99% of those who accessed the internet said they were on Facebook, while 57% said they were on YouTube. – Rappler.com
