According to a recent poll by Pew Research Center, 72 percent of Americans believe that social media platforms censor political views that the companies find objectionable.
This view is held by a majority of both Republicans and Democrats, but is more widely held by Republicans.
Among Republicans, 85 percent of those surveyed thought it was somewhat likely or very likely that social media sites intentionally censor political viewpoints, while 62 percent of Democrats surveyed found it likely.
In a separate question about which political party’s viewpoints major technology companies favor, 64 percent of Republicans said the companies favored the views of liberals over conservatives. Twenty-eight percent of Democrats agreed that these companies favor liberal views, but 53 percent of Democrats said they favored “both equally.” Only 16 percent of Democrats said the companies support the views of conservatives over liberals.
Pew also found that the public has only modest levels of trust in tech companies to do the right thing.
Just three percent of Americans thought the major tech companies could be trusted to do what is right “about all of the time” and 14 percent thought they could hardly ever be trusted. Just 28 percent of Americans thought these companies could be trusted to do the right thing “most of the time or always,” and 72 percent thought they could be trusted to do the right thing “some of the time or hardly ever.”
The survey was conducted May 29-June 11, 2018, among 4,594 respondents.
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