More than three-fourths of conservatives don’t trust Facebook. The social media has been battling controversy after controversy about restricting conservative content.
This is part of the findings of a new poll, conducted by McLaughlin and Associates, specifically looking at conservatives’ attitude towards Facebook, Google, YouTube and Twitter. The poll asked 1,000 likely voters some questions about their opinions about Big Tech.
According to the poll, 76.7 percent of conservatives polled do not trust Facebook to treat all of its users equally. However, the majority of people polled also expressed a similar opinion, with 63.4 percent of those polled saying they did not trust Facebook to treat all of its users equally.
Facebook recently released a report of its audit, conducted by the former director of the ACLU, Laura Murphy. In the audit, Facebook announced that it was looking to remove even more content based on ideology.
Google did not fare well with conservative opinion either. 62.9 percent of conservatives did not trust the search engine platform to treat users equally. Leaked documents from Google, published by Project Veritas, showed employees labeling conservative figures like Dennis Prager and Ben Shapiro “nazis.” However, almost half of those polled all together did not trust Google either. 47.9 percent agreed that Google did not treat its users equally.
YouTube, Google’s sister company, appeared to have suffered from its past decisions. 60.6 percent of conservatives polled did not trust YouTube to treat its users equally. While YouTube de-monetizes and deletes videos from conservative channels like Steven Crowder and PragerU, the video platform is losing its users trust. This does not just apply to conservatives, however. 48.7 percent of those polled did not trust YouTube.
Twitter was given criticism, too. 63.2 percent of conservatives polled did not trust Twitter to treat its users equally. The social media site has targeted conservative content as well as political beliefs it does not agree with, such as people who believe that transgender women are still men.
Many conservatives, as well as others polled, said they are interested in seeing tech monopolies split up. 38.8 percent agreed that they would like to see Facebook, Google, and Amazon regulated and split up into smaller companies. Conservatives feared that Facebook, Google, YouTube, and Twitter had too much control over their users. 48.3 percent of them answered that Big Tech had “too much control over what information people see.” Another 40.8 percent stated that these companies had “too much personal information about us.”
June 2019 Survey Questions
Field June 18; Results June 25
(Total Sample / Conservatives)
Do you TRUST Facebook to treat all of its users equally, regardless of their political beliefs?
Yes (23.4%)
No (63.4% / 76.7%)
Don’t know (13.2%)
Do you TRUST Google to treat all of its users equally, regardless of their political beliefs?
Yes (36.6%)
No (47.9% / 62.9%)
Don’t know (15.6%)
Do you TRUST YouTube to treat all of its users equally, regardless of their political beliefs?
Yes (31.9%)
No (48.7% / 60.6%)
Don’t know (19.4%)
Do you TRUST Twitter to treat all of its users equally, regardless of their political beliefs?
Yes (25.2%)
No (53.0% / 63.2%)
Don’t know (21.8%)
Do you believe that big tech companies like Facebook, Google, and Amazon have become so big and powerful that we should consider breaking them up?
Yes (37.7% / 38.8%)
No (39.5%)
Don’t know (22.8%)
What concerns you the most about big tech companies like Facebook, Google, Twitter, and YouTube? (Pick up to TWO)
They have too much personal information about us (42.3% / 40.8%)
They have too much control over what information people see (42.6% / 48.3%)
They censor political views that don’t align with theirs (21.6% / 38.4%)
They are monopolies that inhibit competition (13.4% / 9.9%)
They have set up content rules that are too complex (7.6% / 4.5%)
They have the ability to influence elections (21.3% / 17.3%)
They care more about what foreign governments want than the U.S. (6.4% / 4.7%)
I’m not concerned about big tech companies (9.3% / 6.5%)
Don’t know/Refused to answer (4.9% / 4.0%)
Methodology:
This survey of 1,000 likely general election voters nationwide was conducted on June 18-24, 2019.
All interviews were conducted online; survey invitations were distributed randomly within predetermined geographic units. These units were structured to correlate with actual voter turnout in a nationwide general election.
This poll of 1,000 likely general election voters has an accuracy of +/- 3.1% at a 95% confidence interval. The accuracy of the responses from the 359 self-described conservatives is +/- 5.2% at a 95% confidence interval.
