Holy sheet. That's pretty terrible. When you have a large percentage of the population who can't tell myth from fact, you got issues. It's getting worse here in the US as well. Too many would rather believe a lie than accept the truth.
The internet (and more specifically social media) allowed nonsense that never would have escaped poorly xeroxed newsletters being handed out on the street to travel the globe in seconds. It allowed for the creation of echo chambers on a scale we could have never previously imagined. It allowed for people who are very naive, ignorant, uneducated, or lack media literacy to be exposed to ideas they never would have otherwise been exposed to that they took at face value.
Were the pieces there, among the populace, all along? Probably. But the internet/social media was the secret ingredient to turn it into a legitimately dangerous widespread social ill.