Dutch not very concerned about fake news

People in the Netherlands are not very concerned about fake news and don't come across it very often. The Dutch also have a relatively high trust in their news media, according to the digital news report by Reuters and the University of Oxford.

According to the researchers, the Netherlands is "characterized by relatively high levels of trust in news and little concern about fake news".

59 percent of Dutch respondents trust the news overall in the Netherlands. With that the Netherlands shares second place with Brazil, after only Portugal and Finland, where 62 percent trust the news. 67 percent trust of Dutch trust the news they themselves use. And only 22 percent trust news on social media.

The Netherlands scored lowest of the 37 examined countries when it comes to concerns about online fake news. Only 30 percent of respondents are concerned about fake news, compared to a global average of 54 percent. Discussions about fake news in the country are mainly focused on social media, politicians and foreign actors like Russia. Around 10 percent of Dutch believe that the majority of news can't be trusted.

Exposure to fake news is also low in the Netherlands, with only 10 percent saying they've come into contact with completely made up stories. This percentage is lower in Germany and Denmark at 9 percent, but much higher in Eastern European countries like Hungary (42 percent) and Romania (38 percent), and Mediterranean countries like Turkey (49 percent) and Greece (44 percent).

The most trusted news brand in the Netherlands is broadcaster NOS, followed by RTL Nieuws, NU.nl and the Volkskrant. Only 13 percent of Dutch pay for online news, 1 percent lower than in 2017. And 26 percent use an ad blocker.