(IntegrityPress.org) – A report has revealed that a majority of Americans are unhappy about the power held by social media companies and the control they exert over individuals’ ability to express their views. According to the Pew Research Center, 78% of Americans believe that social media companies hold too much political power, with the issue being of concern to people on both the left and right of the political aisle.
The survey found that 84% of Republicans and 74% of Democrats polled think that such businesses have too much power. Notably, the Republican view changed little compared to 2020 when the same question was asked, but Democrat supporters appear to have become increasingly concerned. In 2020, 63% of the polled Democrat voters or independents aligned with Democrats said they thought social media companies had too much influence over politics. A majority of respondents supporting either party told pollsters that they believed social media companies censored certain political views.
The survey also found that more than two-thirds of respondents saw social media as having an overall negative influence on the U.S., and although Republicans were more likely to hold a negative view of social media than Democrats, Democrats were increasingly likely to view it as a negative.
This apparently bipartisan sense of concern over social media companies and their ability to control political and other forms of speech may not bode well for social media firms, as some of the most successful joint efforts by blue and red lawmakers in recent years have concerned technology companies.
Pres. Biden has recently signed legislation that forces Chinese company ByteDance to divest from TikTok and sell it to an American firm, citing national security concerns. Sen. Lindsay Graham (R – SC) has worked with progressive Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D – Ma.) to push a bill that would create a “big tech” oversight commission, while Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R – Tn.) has co-authored the Kids Online Safety Act with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D – Ct.) which aims to force social media firms to exercise a duty of care over minors using their apps and websites, although critics have accused the bill of enabling increased government surveillance of adults.
Should the trend of the American public increasingly viewing social media companies as too powerful and having a negative impact continue, the so-called “big tech” companies could face an increasingly hostile public supporting more stringent legislation designed to rein in their perceived power, or possibly even just walking away from social media altogether.
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