Libraries & Librarians

New Report: Expert Pessimism About the World’s Information Environment Hits Record High, New International Panel on the Information Environment (IPIE) Survey Finds

September 16, 2026

From an International Panel on the Information Environment (IPIE) Release:

Three in four experts on the global information environment now expect conditions in their country of expertise to worsen over the coming year, according to a new survey from the International Panel on the Information Environment (IPIE). This is the highest level of pessimism recorded since the IPIE began tracking expert opinion in 2023.

The finding comes from Trends in the Information Environment: 2026 Expert Survey Results, a synthesis report released today by the IPIE, an independent, global science organization based in Switzerland. Between May and June 2026, the IPIE surveyed 470 experts studying the information environment across 71 countries, with almost half focused on developing economies.

Seventy-six percent of experts expect the information environment to worsen over the next year, up from 54% in 2023, 63% in 2024, and 72% in 2025. This year’s increase, unlike those before it, falls within the range of year-to-year variation, so it is too early to say whether the trend is continuing or flattening. Only 14% expect conditions to improve.

Experts also reported growing strain on their own work, with pressures on research rising across most measures since 2025. Research funding remained the most common barrier, cited by 67%, ahead of restricted data access at 60%, up from 49% last year. Political pressure rose sharply: efforts to align research with a government agenda climbed from 21% to 33%, and reports of government censorship more than doubled, from 11% to 23%. Experts on the USA reported government control of research funding and political pressure to align research with an agenda at roughly twice the rate of experts elsewhere, at 50% and 48% respectively. These pressures do not follow the developed and developing divide: censorship and surveillance are reported as often by experts on the USA as by experts on developing economies and are rare among experts on other developed economies.

Pessimism was not spread evenly. Experts studying developed economies outside the USA were the most pessimistic, at 85%, compared with 73% among experts on the USA and 71% among experts on developing economies. That ranking does not track how each group assesses conditions today. Experts on developing economies rated nearly every threat higher than their peers in developed economies and judged current conditions worse: only 24% thought people have the information they need to take part in civic life, against 47% elsewhere. Experts on the USA likewise rated threats well above experts on other developed economies. In short, the groups reporting a better present are the ones expecting the steepest further decline.

Experts are most worried about unaccountable platform power. More than three quarters, 78%, rate the lack of platform accountability a big or extreme threat, ahead of misinformation at 73% and polarization at 69%. Generative AI ranked as the smallest of six threats tested, though 47% still called it a big or extreme threat. For a fourth year running, experts agreed that a healthy information environment depends most on accurate information and a diversity of voices.

The survey also points to a gap between what people can find online and what they trust. Seventy-six percent of experts said people in their country of expertise can find diverse viewpoints online at least somewhat easily, yet only 28% believed most people trust mainstream news outlets to report politics accurately. Experts on developing economies were the most doubtful: fewer than a quarter thought most people feel confident telling accurate information from false, against 44% of experts on developed economies.

Search engines were the only technology whose effects on society experts rated as clearly positive, at 80% – that question did not, however, distinguish searches carrying AI summaries from those without, so the favorable rating is not an endorsement of AI-assisted search. Social media, generative AI and recommender systems all drew mixed to negative views.

Generative AI’s growing role in search drew a more divided verdict. Seventy-nine percent of experts expect AI summaries in search results to help people find answers faster, but 64% expect the same tool to reduce traffic to news websites, and 58% expect it to narrow the range of viewpoints people encounter.