People are now looking to WhatsApp for news, study says

From CNET: People are increasingly worried about fake news from Facebook, so they're looking to other places to stay informed -- like WhatsApp.

No, really. This trend has "jumped significantly" and is demonstrated in "a number of markets," according to the Digital News Report, a study from the Reuters Institute and the University of Oxford which surveyed 71,805 respondents from 36 countries.

While 47 percent of respondents said they get their daily dose of news from Facebook, making the social network the most popular platform for this purpose, its popularity has declined in over half of all surveyed countries.

On the other hand, 15 percent of respondents use WhatsApp for news consumption, where news items are messaged between friends directly or in groups. Despite the smaller figure, the report says it's a "significant" jump from the previous year, and it's the second most popular social media platform for news consumption in nine countries.

Using WhatsApp as a source of news consumption is most popular in Malaysia, where 51 percent of respondents say they use it to share or discuss news every week. It's less popular in the US, where only three percent of respondents use it for the same purpose.

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