Filipinos use beliefs, number of shares when assessing content online: survey
Many Filipinos rely on their personal beliefs and the number of times a post has been shared when deciding whether to believe online content, according to a recent poll.
In Pulse Asia's latest survey, a third of Filipino internet users (33%) said they most often rely on their personal beliefs to determine what online information to believe, while a slightly larger share (35%) said they base their judgment on the source of the information.
Forty-one percent (41%) of Filipino internet users nationwide said they are likely to believe information that has been widely shared online, while 44% said they were undecided.
The survey also found that 72% of respondents consider disinformation a big problem in the Philippines, while it's only a small problem for 4%. Another 24% were undecided.
When asked what they would do if they encountered two conflicting versions of the same information online, a majority (56%) said they would look for another trusted source to verify the information.
Meanwhile, 19% said they would believe the version that more people agree with, 14% said they would believe the first version they encountered, and 11% said they would simply accept that there are two versions of the story.
The findings came from Pulse Asia's nationwide survey on internet and social media use conducted from June 28 to July 3 and 6 among 2,400 Filipino adults.
The July 2026 Ulat ng Bayan survey was conducted amid major political developments, including the start of Vice President Sara Duterte's impeachment trial, the election of Sherwin Gatchalian as Senate President, and continuing corruption investigations involving several lawmakers and former officials.
The survey coincided with key economic and foreign policy events, including the Philippines' reclassification as an upper-middle-income economy, the announcement of P85 minimum wage hike in Metro Manila, and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s engagements with Russia, Canada, and Germany amid tensions with China over the West Philippine Sea. It also noted the magnitude 7.8 earthquake in Mindanao, which killed at least 92 people and displaced thousands of families, as well as growing concerns over school violence following a series of fatal attacks and online threats.
