A nuanced look at attitudes towards tech
Discussing the results from CGO's tech poll
Last week, Marketplace syndicated my interview with Meghan McCarty Carino about CGO’s latest Tech Poll. Public radio listeners nationwide got a nuanced look at attitudes towards tech firms, government, and how those have changed over the last couple of years. More on the data below!
Two of my colleagues, Chris Koopman and Will Rinehart, used this data to advocate for an idea we've been discussing internally: social media is not the public square, it's a coliseum.
As they state in Newsweek, over two-thirds of Americans actively avoid political conversations online. "What this means is that far from a public square, social media is largely a spectator sport when it comes to sharing political views. When politics does come up, people come to watch others duke it out, while working hard to avoid participating."
CGO’s Latest Tech Poll
In the latest installment of our ongoing poll (administered by YouGov), we continue to unpack how Americans view their relationship with today’s major tech platforms.
This survey not only captures how Americans view tech, but also answers important questions ranging from how we should regulate companies to how our views about technology differ based on gender, political ideology, and education.
Along with our ongoing questions about which tech companies Americans trust and which they think should be broken up, we also asked these questions:
Is Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter good for the future of social media?
Is Jeff Bezos’ purchase of the Washington Post good for the future of traditional media?
Should social media platforms be able to remove disruptive and harmful elected officials, content, and information?
Is social media crucial to political discourse and the primary way people share their political beliefs?
Are news coverage and free speech good for American society?
Distrust of tech companies
Tiktok and Facebook are the most distrusted companies.
Men, conservatives, and more educated Americans show greater distrust.
Respondents were asked how much they trust various tech companies to collect and use their data. The most distrusted tech companies are TikTok (60%), Facebook (61%), and Twitter (53%).
Overall, 60% of respondents agree that social media companies can ban disruptive users unless that user is an elected official, in which case 52% agree with a removal.
See the full data set and additional survey results here!
IRL
In a few short weeks our team is hosting another iteration of Tech_States. We are looking forward to seeing many of our friends at the half-day summit covering data privacy, censorship, telecommunications, next-generation technology, and more. If you're looking to join, reach out to parker@thecgo.org for more information.
Don’t miss the 2022 Florida Tech and Innovation Summit. Speakers include Ajit Pai, former Chairman of the FCC, and Roslyn Layton, Founder of China Tech Threat. Tickets and more information here.
Our team will also be at TPRC’s 50th Annual Research Conference on Communications, Information, and Internet Policy. Learn more and register to join us here.