C&RL News September 2021 400

Gary Pattillo is reference librarian at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, e-mail: 
pattillo@email.unc.edu

Disinformation campaigns
“Of the 150 disinformation campaigns that Facebook has caught and removed in the past 
four years, the U.S. has been the most frequent target by far, according to a new threat 
intelligence report from Facebook. In total, the company said there were 16 takedowns 
of coordinated inauthentic behavior networks, or disinformation campaigns, ahead of 
the 2020 elections. Of those 16 networks, five originated in Russia, five originated in 
Iran, and five originated in the U.S. One originated in China.”
Sara Fischer, “Facebook Says U.S. Is the Top Target of Disinformation Campaigns,” Axios, https://www.axios.com/facebook-
disinformation-campaigns-globally-8859f7a8-f846-4899-93cb-dab635461c87.html (retrieved August 9, 2021).

Online college enrollment growth
“Online higher education institutions continue to see enrollment gains during the 
coronavirus pandemic, rising another 2.2 percent in the spring 2021 semester. Full-time 
enrollment at online schools rose less than a percentage point this spring, but part-time 
enrollment grew 5.1 percent. Older students, between 21 and 24 years, also drove the 
growth, with their enrollment rising 7.1 percent.”
Emily Bamforth, “Online College Enrollment Growth Outpaces Real-World Institutions,” EdScoop, April 29, 2021, https://ed-
scoop.com/online-institutions-enrollment-outpaces-real-world-college-thanks-part-time-students (retrieved August 9, 2021).

Mobile Internet views
In central Asia, 87 percent of all page views on the Internet are via mobile devices. Mobile 
page views represent 64 percent of traffic in North America. Only central and eastern 
Europe experience lower percentages at 63 percent.
Nick Lioudis, “Search Traffic, Engagement Growth: Data for Q1 2021,” Chartbeat Blog, April 15, 2021, https://blog.chartbeat.
com/2021/04/15/global-search-traffic-data-q1-2021 (retrieved August 10, 2021).

Postsecondary institutions
In 2019–20 there were 6,086 Title IV institutions in the United States and other U.S. 
jurisdictions—2,731 were classified as 4-year institutions; 1,632 were 2-year institutions; 
and the remaining 1,723 were less-than-2-year institutions. Of the roughly 3.5 million 
students receiving degrees or certificates at 4-year Title IV degree-granting institutions, 
about 57 percent received a bachelor’s degree.
IPEDS (Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System), “Survey Components,” https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/use-the-data/
survey-components (retrieved August 10, 2021).

Link rot
“More than half of all articles in The New York Times that contain (links to specific 
content on the Internet) have at least one rotted link.”
Jonathan Zittrain, “ The Internet Is Rotting,” The Atlantic, June 30, 2021, https://www.theatlantic.com/technology 
/archive/2021/06/the-internet-is-a-collective-hallucination/619320/ (retrieved August 10, 2021).