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Majority in the Caribbean Netherlands question online information

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On Bonaire, Sint-Eustatius and Saba, a majority of residents aged 15 and over on each island have seen online information that they considered untrue or whose truth they doubted. This is shown by new CBS figures for 2025.

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On Bonaire, 65.8 per cent reported having seen such information, on Sint-Eustatius 52.5 per cent and on Saba 65.7 per cent. Residents were reporting on the preceding three months. CBS published the figures for 2025 on 24 September 2026. [1]

The findings concern residents’ judgements. CBS combines information they considered untrue with information they doubted. The figures therefore do not show how much online information was actually incorrect.

Social media mentioned most often

On all three islands, residents mentioned social media more often than news websites or other places on the internet as places where they found such information. For social media, the figures were 50.5 per cent on Bonaire, 39.8 per cent on Sint-Eustatius and 53.3 per cent on Saba. For news websites, the proportions ranged from 13.2 to 18.4 per cent. [1]

This does not establish which medium contains the highest proportion of incorrect information. The percentages are calculated across all residents aged 15 and over, not the users of each medium or the number of posts viewed.

Many residents check information

A large proportion of residents also reported having checked whether online information was true: 74.0 per cent on Bonaire, 81.1 per cent on Sint-Eustatius and 77.1 per cent on Saba. Examples given by CBS include checking sources, consulting other sources and discussing information with others. [1]

These figures do not indicate how often people checked information or whether doing so led them to a correct conclusion.

Checking the safety of websites was less common: on all three islands, approximately 30 per cent reported having done so during the same period. [1]

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