More Americans Want Government to Step In on Online Misinformation

The rise of misinformation on social platforms has led to a shift in thinking among adults in the U.S. on whether the government should get involved, or whether the burden falls on the big tech companies behind those platforms. Pew Research Center released the results of a recent survey, which found that 48% of the 11,178 U.S. adults polled believe the government should take steps to restrict false information, even if it means losing some freedom to access and publish content—up from 39% in a similar survey in 2018. The portion of respondents who believe freedom of information should be protected, even if it leads to some misinformation being published online, fell to 50% from 58% in 2018. Technology companies are not off the hook, with 59% of respondents saying they should take steps to restrict misinformation online, even if it puts some restrictions on Americans’ ability to access and publish content, while 39% favored freedom of information taking precedence, even if it leads to some false claims spreading. Pew said those numbers were little changed from its 2018 survey. The think tank found that partisan divisions have emerged on the issue since 2018, with 70% of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents believing freedom of information should be protected, while 65% of Democrats or Democrat-leaning independents expressed their preference for government action. As for tech companies, 76% of Democrats believe they should take steps to restrict false information online, while 61% of Republicans feel that freedoms should be protected. The gap was smaller in 2018. Conversely, Pew found that some demographic differences that appeared in 2018 were no longer the case, as Americans across all age groups are now evenly divided between the two views, as opposed to three years ago, when older Americans and those with less education were more likely to favor government action. The think tank added that women still tend to be more open than men to the ideas of government and tech companies taking action to thwart misinformation, but both genders have become more supportive of the government doing so since 2018. Pew director of journalism research Amy Mitchell and research analyst Mason Walker wrote in a blog post, “Amid rising concerns over misinformation online—including surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic, especially vaccines—Americans are now a bit more open to the idea of the U.S. government taking steps to restrict false information online. And a majority of the public continues to favor technology companies taking such action.”

Politics

More Americans Want Government to Step In on Online Misinformation

Pew Research Center compared recent results with those from a similar survey in 2018

David Cohen

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David Cohen