Republicans, Democrats, and independents agree that social media companies have too much power and want Congress to regulate Big Tech so as “to limit potential political bias,” a new Washington Examiner/YouGov poll shows.
At the same time, Democrats and independents want social media giants to restrict access to content the companies believe to be false.
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Add these opinions together, and you find that Facebook, Twitter, and Google are in a bind, with no easy path to make everyone happy. It seems Republicans want to regulate tech companies to prevent censorship, while Democrats want to regulate them in order to expand censorship by tech companies, while nevertheless somehow reducing those companies’ influence.
When asked if “social media platforms exert too much influence … on what political news people read,” a massive majority, 76%, said yes. Republicans, at 82%, were more likely to say yes, but independents and Democrats also said yes at high rates, 73% and 71%, respectively.
The Washington Examiner also found a majority (55% to 25%) agreed that Congress should “regulate big technology companies to limit potential political bias.” This included 69% of Republicans, 46% of independents, and 48% of Democrats.
The Republican numbers in particular are bad news for Facebook and Twitter. Democrats in Congress are always ready to regulate an industry whenever they have the chance. Republican lawmakers, along with conservative activists, commentators, and policy experts, are divided on the question of regulating Big Tech, with a more libertarian wing facing off against a more nationalist wing. With such a strong majority of the Republican electorate behind regulation, it might be inevitable for the tech giants.
(If history is a guide, that will mean Republicans and Democrats will work with the tech giants to craft regulation that benefits the big companies while freezing out potential future competitors.)
Twitter and Facebook have earned conservative ire for their censorship, which has been selective and seemingly biased politically. Twitter, in particular, was very quick to limit access to a New York Post article critical of Joe Biden, offering ever-shifting rationales. So it’s unsurprising only 28% of Republicans thought the platforms should restrict access to information they believed to be false. Democrats and journalists at CNN and the New York Times have been banging the drum for Facebook and Twitter to shut down more content they find objectionable, and so it’s expected that Democrats would be warmer to Facebook and Twitter restricting access.
Still, it’s striking to see 83% of Democrats saying they want Twitter and Facebook to exercise more censorship while 71% of Democrats simultaneously say the websites have too much influence over what people see.
The Washington Examiner/YouGov poll surveyed 1,200 registered voters and has a margin of error on closely divided questions of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.
