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The situation currently experienced due to the COVID-19 pandemic has led to the lockdown of the most of the EU population, who have spent more time at home and therefore more time online.

 

Misinformation, fake news and cyber-security are increasingly dominant topics in an environment of disquiet and uncertainty where information proliferates that can cause not only social but also public health damage (FCT, 2020). According to a study carried out in the EU and USA, people with low levels of formal education are much less likely to say that they rely on news organisations for news and information about coronavirus, and more likely to rely on social media and messaging applications (Nielsen et al., 2020). Researchers also found that marginalised communities in every country did not engage with news and with government advices and, in turn, often know less about the crisis (Nielsen et al., 2020).