A growing number of Americans believe social media companies hold too much power in politics. A majority also think tech companies should be regulated.
We have written several NewsWires on Americans’ distrust of tech companies. (See “Americans Don’t Trust Big Tech.”) It’s one of the few issues with bipartisan agreement. Now a new Pew survey shows that this distrust has significantly increased since the pandemic began.
78% of US adults think social media companies hold too much political power and influence. That’s a +6 percentage point increase since 2020. This rise has predominantly come from Democrats: While the share of Republicans who hold this belief has risen +2 pp over the last four years (84%), the share of Democrats who share this belief has risen +11 pp (74%).
83% of US adults also believe tech companies likely censor political views they disagree with. That’s a +10 pp increase since 2020. Again, this rise has predominantly come from Democrats. While Republican agreement has risen only +3 pp over the last four years (93%), Democratic agreement has risen +15 pp (74%).
51% of Americans support greater regulation of tech companies. That’s a -5 pp decrease since 2021. This decline comes entirely from Republicans. While Democratic support has increased by +1 pp over the last three years, Republican support has fallen by -9 pp. I suspect Republican support has declined because they don’t trust the Biden administration to do anything—even something they would like.
Did You Know?
Are You Engaged at Work? According to a new Gallup poll, only 30% of US employees said in Q1 2024 that they were engaged at work—meaning that they were highly involved and enthusiastic about the work and workplaces. That’s a -3 percentage point decline from Q4 2023 and the lowest reading since 2013. The largest declines were among workers under age 35 (-5 pp), remote workers (-5 pp), and workers who could work remotely but chose to work in the office (-6 pp). Meanwhile, 17% of workers say they are “actively disengaged”—which basically means they are not only unproductive themselves, but also toxic to coworkers. Gallup, which offers HR consulting services on worker engagement, reports that the top-performing firms are able to attain an engaged-to-actively unengaged ratio of 14 to 1. That’s considerably higher than the current US average of 2 to 1.
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