[ April 17, 2024 ]
A new poll shows that Americans, by and large, would like to see tighter regulations on the technology industry.
Why?
Americans don’t think Silicon Valley is trustworthy enough to self-monitor and do the right thing.
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Specifically, Americans look at stories like the Russia meddling of U.S. elections and the proliferation of so-called “fake news,” and say: We need government to control this stuff.
Axios has the story:
A majority of Americans are now concerned that the government won’t do enough to regulate how U.S. technology companies operate, according to an Axios-SurveyMonkey poll. Across the board, concern about government inaction is up significantly — 15 percentage points — in the past three months.
Why it matters: That’s a seismic shift in the public’s perception of Silicon Valley over a short period of time. It shows how worried Americans are about Russian meddling in the 2016 election, but it also reflects a growing anxiety about the potentially addictive nature of some of the tech companies’ products, as well as the relentless spread of fake news on their platforms.
What’s changed: In a previous Axios-SurveyMonkey poll in November, just after Facebook, Google and Twitter testified before Congress, only about four in 10 Americans were concerned that the government wouldn’t do enough to regulate the tech companies.
Now that number has jumped to 55%. Notably, 45% of Republicans — who are usually skeptical about government regulation — share the concern that government won’t do enough. Independents showed the biggest shift with an increase of 20 percentage points.
There’s other bad news for the tech companies, too:
More than eight in 10 — including big majorities across party lines — blame the technology companies for not doing more to safeguard their platforms against election interference.
When asked whether social media does more to help promote democracy and free speech or does more to hurt democracy and free speech, most Americans (55%) now say social media does more to hurt democracy and free speech than it helps.
The good news: There’s no letup in the widespread public sentiment that technology has had a positive effect on society. More than seven out of 10 Americans share that view. And 82% say the success of U.S. tech companies has been good for the economy.
The big picture: In response to growing scrutiny in Washington, major tech firms are leaning heavily on the consistent positive views of the tech industry. They often tout the fact that consumers love their free, innovative products that have become staples of every day life.
But these numbers show that more people are trying to square their affinity for the companies’ services with the downsides that have become so much more visible in the past year. As those concerns bubble up to policy makers, regulation of some sort — even in narrowly tailored areas — seems like less of a long shot than it did at the end of 2017.
Methodology: The online survey was conducted by SurveyMonkey from February 21-23, 2018 among 3,574 adults in the United States. They were selected from the nearly 3 million people who take surveys on the SurveyMonkey platform each day. The modeled error estimate for the full sample is 2.5 percentage points. Crosstabs available here.
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21 Comments
6 years ago
If folks don’t trust the tech industry they sure are showing it in an odd way. They’ll climb on Facebook to complain about it while searching Google for that latest YouTube video. And here I am posting up on Disqus…
6 years ago
Election rigging is a hoax – in the context of Social(ist) Media.
You’re not rigging an election when you’re lying to the brainwashed choir.
The fact the the public even thinks the elections were rigged or hacked is a sign of ‘Fake News’ on the older Enemedia and SJW Opinion-Echo Chambers on the new Enemedia.
Censorship – and unfair access to the infrastructure built on top of our culture and our paper money – is the issue.
Everything else is a distraction – and therefore disinformation.
6 years ago
Reply to
Dan Knight
Upshot – more regumalation is not a good idea.
Successful lawsuits to force the Leftists to accept the same public accommodation rules for utilities that apply in every other business – and many personal – activities is a lesser evil (and more effective) alternative.
6 years ago
Reply to
aemoreira1981
Not a problem. If lawsuits ensuring that the truth is not suppressed in favor of hateful, racist and bigoted lies, no ‘hot war’ will cost the lives already lost to Leftists – and btw that estimate does NOT include abortions.
6 years ago
What is needed is positive legal action where companies like face book and twitter are successfully sued for breaking existing business and tax laws. Then there is the whole issue of racism and bigotry where the aforementioned complies selectively censor some groups of people and favour others, with the promotion of hate and violence against an identifiable minority being corporate policy.
6 years ago
Reply to
aemoreira1981
The only thing that keep you from being a failure as a lawyer is never finishing high school or going to university.
6 years ago
Reply to
aemoreira1981
Everyone who uses a public accommodation has standing.
The hateful, racist, bigoted Leftists only have a few unconstitutional regulations protecting the Tech Giants standing between the 14th Amendment and completely open access to their platforms.
But – again – Islamists, Nazis, and White Supremacists and others – all have access to their platforms.
It is only the anti-Islamists, anti-nazis, and anti-White Supremacists having trouble with access.
6 years ago
Reply to
aemoreira1981
Poor little aemoreira1981. Back to playing make believe “pretend lawyer”. You truly are SO much fun to laugh AT.
6 years ago
That is why the USA has a Constitution that overrides the will of the majority.
6 years ago
Reply to
aemoreira1981
The Left uses COTUS as toilet paper … except when you’re a criminal.
6 years ago
Reply to
Achmed Mohammedan
Little Johhny one note! How many brain cells do you have – 2??
6 years ago
Reply to
Shuali
Obviously FAR (special emphasis added) more than some blithering idiot that uses two punctuation marks (“??”). Not the sharpest machete in the shed, are you Shuali?
6 years ago
The American Public are right to want the Tech companies to be reigned in for the LEFTIST AGENDA;s & the continual deleting of banning of posts with different opinions than the LEFTIST GLOBALIST ONES that they all seem to CHAMPION!
All FREE SPEECH must be FREE & Not Restricted unless it is DISHONEST or ABUSIVE!
The MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD C.A.I.R. & the Southern Poverty Law Group needs to be exposed as actively working against the Constitution & the American people as they try to impose SHARIA on all!
6 years ago
Reply to
John Forbes
Then they can seek an Amendment to the COTUS. SPLC trying to impose Sharia? LMFAO!
6 years ago
Reply to
aemoreira1981
Just get people to elect politicians that will demand that FREE SPEECH is left alone & do not allow left or right wing censorship.
Free speech allows people to say what politicians & many in the public do not WANT TO HEAR but everyone should be able to say or print it provided it is HONEST & NOT abusive!
There is no other way to protect DEMOCRACY!
