Memo: Voters Support More Regulation of Social Media Companies

By

Sean McElwee, Executive Director, Data for Progress
Emily Bello-Pardo, Senior Political Analyst, YouGov Blue

Executive Summary

  • A majority of voters enjoy using social media sites like Facebook, with very slight differences based on respondent’s self-reported party ID.

  • Most voters (53 percent) would prefer to use a digital currency devised by a public source like the government, with only 5 percent indicating they would prefer to use a digital currency from a private source. Notably, 41 percent of voters report being unsure about which of the two options they would prefer. This result holds across the partisan divide.

  • Six out of ten voters support a policy requiring large social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to make public the algorithms that they use to serve ads in their platforms. A majority of Democrats (64 percent), independents (53 percent), and Republicans (58 percent) each support such a policy.

  • Fifty-seven percent of voters support a new tax based on the size of social media companies. The policy has net support across all three groups: 54 percentage points among Democrats, 23 points among independents, and 12 points among Republicans.

Sean McElwee