Three In Four Voters Feel Big Tech Has Too Much Influence On Political News, Elections
Michael Cantrell
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A new poll says three out of four registered voters believe that social media companies like Facebook and Twitter have way too much influence over the kind of news content that folks consume and that these platforms are too biased.
The poll, put out by Washington Examiner/YouGov, has found that 76 percent of those surveyed thought that these companies had too much influence, compared to the very small 6 percent who felt they had too little, while only 11 percent felt they had just the right amount. The majority includes 82 percent Republicans, 71 percent Democrats, and 73 percent independents.
Here’s more from Washington Examiner:
These results come after social media giants Facebook and Twitter suppressed sharing a story about emails purportedly obtained from a computer belonging to Hunter Biden that could create political problems for his father, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, shortly before the election. Republicans have charged Twitter and Facebook with making an “in-kind contribution” to Biden’s campaign by preventing users from sharing the news on their platforms. Conservatives have been pressing Senate Republicans to hold hearings on the social media companies’ handling of this story soon.
In the same poll, the public is split on the question of whether the former vice president has been honest about his son’s business activities in other countries.
A plurality of registered voters, 39%, believe social media bans have been biased against the Republican Party. This includes a huge majority of Republicans at 82% and a plurality of independents at 37%, though only 6% of Democrats agree.
“Another 20% of registered voters believe that social media is biased against both parties. This includes 28% of Democrats and 26% of independents, though only 6% of Republicans agree,” wrote W. James Antle III in his report.
“There is broad support for Congress regulating social media companies to limit potential bias, with 55% saying they should, 25% saying they should not, and another 20% saying they did not know. The poll found that 69% of Republicans support such regulations, which have been advocated by Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley and other GOP lawmakers. But Democrats also back potential regulations by 18 points and independents by 15,” he continued.
About 57 percent said they think that social media should only restrict the content they know for sure is false. Democrats, of course, are very supportive of that kind of measure with 83 percent in favor of it. Republicans mostly opposed the idea at 63 percent.
The Washington Examiner/YouGov poll surveyed 1,200 registered voters with a margin of error of that’s plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.
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