The survey revealed that most marketers prefer advertisers to spend their money on media and platforms that act in the interests of society.

It also depicted that communications experts are against the censorship of fake news, but if lies on platforms and social networks can be verified as being untrue, they want them to be identified as such. 

Sixty percent of the marketers and communications specialists surveyed believe or tend to believe that the economy should spend its advertising money on media and platforms that have a positive influence on society and democracy.

Just 23% say that businesses should not take this into consideration when allocating their advertising budgets. 

The sentiment is also unequivocal when it comes to fake news and lies posted online. Rather than fake news being censored, marketers want it to be clearly indicated. For example, 64% of respondents say that platforms and social networks should identify verifiable lies and obvious false reports as such.

Only 12% of respondents believe that operators should delete fake news and verifiable lies, while 17% think that no action should be taken here, as deleting information would amount to censorship, according to the results. 

Just 6% believe that it is impossible to control fake news and lies online, so nothing can be done about it.

In the current trend survey, Civey also asked the opinion of German marketers on the chances of success for the current charges filed by the United States government's anti-cartel authorities with regard to Google's misuse of its market power.

Only a small minority of the respondents expect Google to face serious consequences and only a mere 6% believe that the multinational will be broken up as a result of the suit. In contrast, 52% think that the company will simply face a fine and 24% even assume that Google will be acquitted.

"Our current trend survey shows that attitude is a topic that will continue to play an important role over the next year," says Milko Malev, director of communications and media at DMEXCO.

"The coronavirus pandemic, the Facebook ad boycott and the Black Lives Matter movement are just a few examples of the many issues on which companies have taken a stance in this year alone, including in the digital industry," adds Malev.

"The findings confirm that marketers have more of a moral compass than their reputation might lead you to think. They understand the responsibility that goes hand-in-hand with where they spend their advertising money," Malev concludes. 

All DMEXCO '@home' sessions are now available to ticketholders, as well as to all accredited journalists, as video-on-demand here. All of the presentations, panels and masterclasses that were held between Wednesday, 23 September and Thursday, 24 September can be viewed through the given link until further notice.

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