Official statistics as a safeguard against fake news

摘要

Recent developments linked to technology and abundance of data have challenged the role of the national statistical institutes and official statistics. There is a rapidly changing demand for new and more statistics. At the same time, there are new possibilities in terms of new data and data sources. However, this has led to competition from new producers and communicators of statistics – actors that not always fulfill the requirements traditionally put on statistical institutes and their statistics. The concept of fake news has become common. The paper considers how official statistics can provide a protection against fake news based on statistics. This is done by discussing and answering the following questions: What are the requirements to official statistics? How should this concept be defined and communicated? How can one ensure that official statistics comply to these requirements, also such statistics produced outside the national statistical institutes? Professional independence and impartiality are key issues in this context. The paper is supported by examples of fake news based on statistics and a description of the work on developing the new Norwegian Statistics Act. Official statistics and requirements to such statistics are central to the Act.