The Verge’s tech survey has a few big takeaways: Americans are skeptical of Facebook, want Big Tech broken up, and seemingly say Twitter is a menace to society.
The Verge has conducted surveys, starting with “the hangover of the 2016 US presidential election” about the power and implications of Big Tech platforms. “That survey found that the public was increasingly skeptical of Facebook but was still reliant on it,” The Verge wrote in its March 2 article. It also revealed, “[m]ore importantly,” that Americans “generally believe the biggest tech companies have too much power and ought to be split up.”
56 percent of those surveyed said the government “should break up tech companies if they control too much of the economy,” noted The Verge.
51 percent of those surveyed said Google and YouTube should “be split into separate companies.” Yet, even so, 69 percent of those surveyed replied that they “trust” Google with their information, while markedly less (58%) trust its partner YouTube. A whopping 72 percent replied that Google has a “positive” impact on society.
American adults surveyed were overwhelmingly skeptical over Facebook’s influence, with 72 percent answering Facebook “has too much power.” When asked: “What are your top reasons for not using Facebook?” 46 percent said their chief grievance was “privacy/trust with my personal information.” In addition, 27 percent responded that they “Don't like how Facebook does business.” Despite all this, 79 percent responded that Facebook is better at helping them “connect with friends/family” than Google.
Even though Americans appear to enjoy the conveniences of Facebook, the liberal media and some leaders of the modern left are not happy with the platform.
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Democratic primary frontrunner Joe Biden has blasted Facebook, with statements like: “No, I’ve never been a fan of Facebook, as you probably know. I’ve never been a big Zuckerberg fan. I think he’s a real problem” and calling for Section 230 protections to be stripped from social media platforms.
“The idea that it’s a tech company is that Section 230 should be revoked, immediately should be revoked, number one,” stated Biden. “For Zuckerberg and other platforms.”
Despite Americans’ skepticism of Facebook for its business practices and privacy rules, the company with the worst overall feedback was Twitter.
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Twitter has the largest percentage (26 percent) of those who say it has a negative impact on society, though Facebook at 25 percent is only slightly behind. Even still, the smallest percentage of those surveyed (33%) said they would be “disappointed” if Twitter disappeared, compared to 55 percent for Facebook and 85 percent for Google (the largest percentage).
Considering how Twitter has become a politically radical echo chamber, should users be surprised that it drives away everyday Americans?
Liberals on Twitter are shown by a recent Pew Research Center survey to be significantly more left-wing than liberals who are not on the platform. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey even mourned the departure of Andrew Yang from the race, who was a proponent of such radical ideas as Universal Basic Income. Twitter’s employees even donated overwhelmingly to liberal candidates. According to OpenSecrets.org, a project of the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics,Twitter staff gave $109,456 to politicians for the 2020 cycle.
The Verge gave readers the background of their methodology, and wrote that this survey was conducted “in December with 1,123 people, nationally representative of the US. The sample error is ± 3 percent at a 95 percent level of confidence.”
