Voters Support Regulating All Big Tech Companies — Not Just TikTok
By Sabrina Jacobs, Abby Springs, and Lew Blank
Lawmakers and regulators have recently entered serious discussions about banning TikTok, a social media app with over 1 billion active users around the world. The interest in banning TikTok stems from concerns that its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, will hand over sensitive user information to the Chinese government. TikTok has repeatedly denied these allegations.
Last month, the House Foreign Affairs Committee approved a bill that would allow the president to ban TikTok, and the Biden Administration has demanded that ByteDance sell the app to an American company, or else it could face a national ban.
In a new survey, Data for Progress asked 1,218 likely voters about their attitudes toward TikTok, a potential ban on the app, and on regulating Big Tech more broadly. We began by assessing the issues voters believe are most important, and find that only 3 percent of voters (3 percent of Democrats, 2 percent of Independents, and 3 percent of Republicans) think banning TikTok is a top issue for Congress to focus on.
Among voters ages 18-29, only 4 percent list banning TikTok as a top priority. Instead, voters under 30 list gun safety, inflation, healthcare, and climate change as their top political priorities. Young adult voters also report the highest adoption of TikTok, with 60 percent of voters under 30 reporting using the app at least once a day.
When asked whether they support or oppose a national ban on TikTok, a majority (55 percent) of voters support a ban, including 44 percent of Democrats, 52 percent of Independents, and 67 percent of Republicans. Results vary widely across age ranges, with younger voters opposing a ban (-20-point margin among voters 18-29 ) and older voters strongly supporting one (+63-point margin among voters 70 and older).
We also asked voters whether they would rather ban TikTok, require ByteDance to sell the app to American operators, or leave the situation as is. With this slate of options, fewer respondents support a ban outright: 36 percent support a full ban, 30 percent prefer that TikTok be sold to U.S. operators, and 22 percent want the situation to be left as is.
Our survey also finds that banning TikTok would not affect most Americans’ motivation to vote — except among younger voters. Sixty-nine percent of voters say that if Congress decided to ban TikTok, it would not impact their motivation to vote in 2024. However, among voters ages 18-29, that figure drops to 35 percent. Forty percent of voters 18-29 say a TikTok ban would make them more motivated to vote, while 25 percent say it would make them less motivated.
Our survey also asked voters about their thoughts on TikTok in the landscape of Big Tech companies overall. We find that while much of the concern from lawmakers has centered around ByteDance giving user information to the Chinese government, 70 percent of voters are concerned about all Big Tech companies collecting and profiting off user information — not just China-based companies. This includes 69 percent of Democrats, 73 percent of Independents, and 68 percent of Republicans. Only 15 percent of voters are specifically concerned about China-based companies.
We also find 71 percent of voters believe the U.S. government should impose stricter regulations on Big Tech companies, like Facebook and Google, and enforce stronger data privacy rules. This includes 74 percent of Democrats, 71 percent of Independents, and 70 percent of Republicans.
More specifically, a strong majority of voters (72 percent) support new regulations to limit the ability of Big Tech companies to collect and profit off user data, including 74 percent of Democrats, 72 percent of Independents, and 71 percent of Republicans.
The rise of TikTok and large social media companies in general has transformed the way Americans interact with each other every day. However, despite concerns about data privacy, voters do not see banning TikTok as a top priority for Congress. While a TikTok ban may cause backlash among younger voters, strengthening data privacy protections for all Big Tech companies has strong support among likely voters across partisan and generational divides.
Sabrina Jacobs (@bri_jacobs) is a staff writer at Data for Progress.
Abby Springs (@abby_springs) is the Press Secretary at Data for Progress.
Lew Blank (@LewBlank) is a polling analyst at Data for Progress.