A repeated statistic is not stronger just because it appears in many snippets

A research note about citation drift when the same number is copied across blogs and search snippets.

Repeated statistics can look reliable in search results because the same number appears on many pages. That can also mean one weak source was copied many times. I would rather see the original report, measurement date, population, and exact wording. If the original source cannot be found, the note should say that instead of treating repetition as proof.