Digital Battle for Truth: Misinformation on Social Media and the Crisis of Youth Evangelisation in the Nigerian Catholic Church

The rapid expansion of social media has fundamentally transformed the ways in which young people encounter, interpret, and practice their faith. While digital platforms have created unprecedented opportunities for evangelisation, they have simultaneously facilitated the widespread dissemination of religious misinformation, posing significant challenges to authentic faith formation among Catholic youth. Guided by Social Construction of Reality Theory, this study investigates the influence of digital misinformation on faith understanding, religious identity formation, and evangelisation experiences among Catholic youth in Nigeria. A convergent mixed-methods research design was adopted, involving a survey of 500 Catholic youths drawn from Nigeria's six geopolitical zones and 30 semi-structured interviews with young people, youth leaders, and clergy. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics, while qualitative data were subjected to thematic analysis to provide deeper contextual insights. The findings reveal that exposure to religious misinformation is pervasive, with 75% of respondents reporting frequent encounters with misleading religious content, predominantly through WhatsApp, Facebook, and TikTok. The study further demonstrates that such misinformation contributes to doctrinal confusion, encourages syncretic belief systems, weakens confidence in official Church teachings, and increasingly shifts trust towards online prophets, religious influencers, and unverified digital sources. Furthermore, young people's vulnerability to misinformation is exacerbated by limited digital literacy, inadequate catechetical formation, and strong peer influence within online communities, particularly WhatsApp groups. The study concludes that the contemporary crisis of youth evangelisation in Nigeria is intrinsically linked to the broader digital battle for truth. Addressing this challenge requires a holistic approach that integrates digital literacy education, contextually relevant digital catechesis, and a more visible, engaging, and credible online pastoral presence. Accordingly, the study recommends the development of a coordinated national digital evangelisation strategy, specialised digital communication training for clergy and pastoral workers, strengthened catechetical programmes that incorporate media literacy, and the active empowerment of young people as co-creators and ambassadors of authentic Catholic digital content capable of countering misinformation and promoting faith-based truth in the digital age. Keywords BattleCrisisDigitalEvangelisationMisinformationSocial MediaTruthYouth