Lisbon, May 9, 2025 (Lusa) - The Regulatory Authority for the Media (ERC) warned on Friday about the circulation of fake polls on social media, pointing out that these situations "have a high potential for misinformation" and are being investigated.

In the context of the legislative elections on 18 May, the media regulator "has identified the publication of alleged electoral opinion polls on social media that do not correspond to polls carried out by companies accredited by the ERC," the entity said in a statement published on its website.

"These situations have high potential for misinformation and are being investigated by the regulator," the ERC said.

The media regulator reiterates "that the essential elements for citizens to assess the legality and statistical reliability of polls are verification that they were produced by a company accredited by the ERC and that their publication is preceded by mandatory filing with" the authority.

Another factor is that "they are published and disseminated by media outlets" and that "it is accompanied by a set of mandatory elements (commonly known as the disclosure data sheet), which include, among others, the identification of the responsible entity and the client, the target universe, the sample size, the sampling method, the response rate, the sample breakdown, and the margins of error," the ERC added.

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