Republican and Democratic voters in the United States are split on the issues of content moderation and censorship on social media, although they share a desire to bolster regulation of tech companies, a Morning Consult poll released Tuesday said
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 31st January, 2023) Republican and Democratic voters in the United States are split on the issues of content moderation and censorship on social media, although they share a desire to bolster regulation of tech companies, a Morning Consult poll released Tuesday said.
More than half of Republicans, 54%, consider social media censorship a "major threat," compared to just 28% of Democrats, the poll found.
Inversely, 54% of Democrats support social media platforms strengthening their content moderation policies, compared to 28% of Republicans, the poll found.
Nearly half of independent voters, 47%, believe censorship is a threat and 30% support strengthened content moderation policies, the poll also found.
Nevertheless, there may be space for bipartisan action to regulate social media companies, with Republicans signaling their intent to investigate Federal government ties to big tech and US President Joe Biden flagging tech regulation as an area of cooperation for Democratic leadership in Congress, the official poll report said.
However, the parties have targeted different issues, as indicated by their voters' poll responses, the report said. Republicans have sought to prevent social media companies from removing certain types of content while Democrats have pushed for more effective content moderation during previous tech reform discussions, the report said.
The poll surveyed 1,986 registered voters between January 18-20 and maintains an unweighted margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points, the report said.
