Majority of Indians say politicians mislead masses: survey

New Delhi, Sep 13 (IANS) A survey of over 19,000 people across the country revealed that most Indians blame politicians for misleading the people.

The survey conducted by Ipsos said that 56 percent respondents "blame politicians for misleading people, 47 percent believed that it is the media that is misleading people; 44 percent feel social media is the culprit for people's lopsided views."

The study of over 19,000 people in 27 countries shows that the majority of Indians say that they regularly see fake news and half of them said that they believed a fake story, only to discover later that it was fake.

"When it comes to fake news, 72 percent Indians profess to have seen news stories by media organizations deliberately saying something that wasn't true. And 55 percent Indians say that they had falsely believed a news story as real until they found out that it was fake," it said.

Interestingly, Indians interpreted fake news in different ways.

As many as 55 percents said fake news were stories, where the news outlets or politicians only picked up facts that supported their side of the argument; 53 percent said fake news were stories with wrong facts; 36 percent of Indians felt fake news was a term politician and the media used to discredit news they didn't agree with.