A recent Pew Research Center (Pew) study found that most Americans are, at least to some extent, concerned about online censorship and the ability of social media companies to handle misinformation.
The Pew study, published on August 19, found that 73 percent of U.S adults believe that social media companies censor political viewpoints of their users.
The study found that 90 percent of Republicans believe that it is “somewhat” or “very” likely that social media companies “intentionally censor political viewpoints they find objectionable”, a five percent increase from a similar study in 2018. Meanwhile, 59 percent of Democrats think it is “somewhat” or “very” likely that social media companies do so, which is actually down from 62 percent in 2018.
Researchers also found that 51 percent of participants approve of social media sites labeling posts from elected officials as “inaccurate or misleading.” When asked how much confidence they had in social media companies determining which posts should be labeled as inaccurate or misleading, a vast majority, 67 percent combined, responded that they have “not too much” confidence (38%) or “none at all” (29%).
“Americans have complicated feelings about their relationship with big technology companies,” noted Pew. While these platforms can certainly be an effective tool, it is no secret that Big Tech companies like Facebook and Twitter have consistently censored opposing viewpoints.
On August 6, Facebook restricted the Committee to Defend the President from running ads on the platform. Both Facebook and Twitter have also censored posts about hydroxychloroquine, with Twitter going so far as to suspend Donald Trump Jr.’s account for posting a video of doctors discussing the effectiveness of the drug. Even Facebook’s fact-checkers are made up of left-leaning organizations. Until recently, YouTube had demonetized conservitive comedian and commentator Steven Crowder. Even Reddit quarantined the subreddit “r/The_Donald” in June of 2019.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact the FCC at 1-888-225-5322 and submit a comment on the petition filed by the Department of Commerce regarding Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. Demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on “hate speech” and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us at the Media Research Center contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
