Two-thirds of U.S. adults don’t trust Big Tech and three-fourths say Facebook, in particular, makes American society worse, a new CNN poll finds.
The national survey of 1,004 adults (18 and over), conducted November 1-4, 2021 by SSRS, finds that only 5% have “a great deal” of trust in Big Tech to act in their users’ best interests – while 38% don’t have any trust at all:
“Overall, how much do you trust big technology companies such as Google, Facebook, or Amazon to do what is best for their users?”
- A Great Deal: 5%
- Somewhat: 29%
- A Little: 28%
- Not at All: 38%
Fully 76% say Facebook has a negative effect on American society. Just 11% say Facebook makes things better.
- Facebook makes American society better: 11%
- Facebook makes American society worse: 76%
- Facebook has no effect: 13%
Of those who think Facebook harms society, nearly half (45%) say that’s more due to the way Facebook is run than it is the result of the way people use the social media platform (55%).
Nearly five times as many adults think the solution is to increase (53%), rather than decrease (11%), government regulation of Facebook. Meanwhile, 35% don’t see any need for change.
Distrust of Big Tech has risen over the past two years, especially among Republicans, CNN reports:
“Americans also express little faith in the good intentions of big technology firms, with 38% saying they don't trust companies such as Google, Facebook or Amazon at all to do what is best for their users, up from 29% in March 2019. Only 34% of Americans say they even somewhat trust big tech companies, a modest downtick from 40% two years ago.
“A majority in both parties say they have little or no trust in big technology companies to act in their users' best interest, although this sentiment is more widespread among the GOP -- 71% of Republicans take this position, compared with 58% of Democrats. That's a bigger partisan gap than two year ago, when Republicans were only 5 percentage points likelier than Democrats to express mistrust of such companies.”
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
Editor's Note: This piece was originally published on CNSNews.com