Over a million Dutch now rely only on social media for news

More than 1 million people in the Netherlands now get their news solely from social media, even though just 12% say they trust the news they see on those platforms.

The figure comes from the Digital News Report, the annual study of news habits the media regulator Commissariaat voor de Media (CvdM) produces with the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, published on Tuesday.

That group – 7% of adults, up from 2% in 2018 – uses no other source: no news sites, no television, no radio. At the same time, half of all Dutch people now say they worry about the news that circulates on social platforms.

The report also points to a steady fall in interest. In 2018, 61% of people said they had a lot of interest in the news; this year that has dropped to 45%. The share saying they have no interest at all rose from 4% to 14%.

Younger users lead

The shift is sharpest among the young. For 33% of 18- to 34-year-olds, social media is now the main source of news, up from 20% when the survey began in 2018.

Half of 18- to 24-year-olds follow so-called news influencers – accounts that comment on or repackage the news. The most-followed in the Netherlands is the channel Cestmocro, which has 1.2 million followers and no publicly known owner.

A smaller but growing group uses AI chatbots for news: around 7% of adults, rising to 13% among younger people.

Trusted but less so

The CvdM calls the pattern a paradox: news on social media is widely distrusted, yet those platforms matter more and more for how people come across it.

Established brands still fare better. NOS remains the most trusted news name, followed by the press agency ANP and RTL Nieuws. But the group that distrusts the news outright has roughly doubled since 2018, from 11% to 21%.

CvdM chair Amma Asante said trust in the Netherlands remained high by international standards. “So we have something to lose that we have to protect,” she said.