Social media companies have too much political power, 78% of Americans say in Pew survey

Finally, one point both sides can agree on: social media companies are too powerful.

According to a Pew Research Center survey, 78% of American adults believe social media companies have too much influence over politics – breaking down by party, that’s 84% ​​of Republicans surveyed and 74% of Democrats. Overall, this view has become 6% more popular since the last presidential election year.

Americans’ feelings about social media mirror those of their lawmakers. Some of the only political activities that have garnered significant bipartisan support recently have been efforts to hold social media platforms accountable. Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) have been working across the aisle on their Kids Online Safety Act, a bill that would impose a duty of care on social media platforms to ensure the safety of children; However, some privacy advocates have criticized the bill’s potential to make adults more vulnerable to government surveillance.

Meanwhile, Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) have also forged an unlikely partnership to propose a bill that would create a commission to oversee big tech platforms.

“The only thing worse than doing a bill with Elizabeth Warren is her doing a bill with me,” Graham said during a Senate hearing in January.

It’s obvious why Americans think tech companies have too much political power: Since the 2020 investigation, social platforms have been used to coordinate an attack on the Capitol, and as a result, a sitting president has been banned from these platforms for having encouraged these attacks. Meanwhile, the government is so concerned about the influence of Chinese company TikTok that President Biden just signed a bill that could permanently ban the app.

But views among conservative and liberal Americans differ on the subject of tech company bias. While 71% of Republicans surveyed said big tech favors liberal over conservative perspectives, 50% of Democrats said tech companies support each set of views equally. Only 15% of adults say tech companies support conservatives over liberals.

These survey results make sense given the rise of explicitly conservative social platforms, like Rumble, Parler, and Trump’s Truth Social app.

During Biden’s presidency, government agencies like the FTC and DOJ have targeted tech companies in more targeted ways. Some of the country’s largest companies, such as Amazon, Apple and Meta, have faced major lawsuits for monopolistic behavior. But according to the Pew survey, only 16% of U.S. adults think tech companies should be less regulated than they currently are. This percentage has increased since 2021, when Pew estimated this value to be 9%.

Liberals and conservatives may not agree on everything when it comes to tech policy, but the overriding view from this survey is clear: Americans are tired of big tech’s outsized influence.