Americans are no longer certain social media companies are having a positive influence on our country, according to a new survey from the Pew Research Center.
“Four years ago, technology companies were widely seen as having a positive impact on the United States,” the survey reads. “But the share of Americans who hold this view has tumbled 21 percentage points since then, from 71% to 50%.”
As the positive views decline, naturally the negative views rise — 33 percent of U.S. citizens aren’t looking at these companies though rose colored glasses, they see their influence unfavorably. That’s up 16 percent from 2015.
Members of both the Democrat and Republican parties are both down on their positive views of tech companies with only a 10-percent margin separating them. Democrats have a 54 percent positive viewpoint, down 20 percent from 2015. Forty-four percent (44%) of Republicans view the companies through a positive lens, a decrease of nearly 30 percent from four years ago.
A Pew Research survey from 2018 found that 72 percent of Americans — up from 55 percent — believed that social media sites “intentionally censor” political views they see as “objectionable.”
“The public generally believes social media companies have a responsibility to remove offensive content from their platforms,” the 2018 survey stated, but at the same time, “Americans have little confidence in the companies when it comes to determining what’s offensive.”
The recent study notes, in addition to a decrease in the trust of tech companies, the majority of U.S. adults surveyed believe large corporations and the news media have “a negative effect on the U.S.”
