Dem Voters Much More in Favor of Social Media Censorship Than Against

(Getty Images/Olivier Douliery)

Three-fourths all U.S. likely voters think that social media companies like Facebook are censoring content because of political bias, and three-fourths of Democrat voters agree, but Democrats are much less likely to want Congress to do anything about it – and much more concerned about so-called “misinformation” posted on social media sites.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 77% of likely U.S. voters and 74% of Democrat voters believe it’s likely that social media companies, such as Facebook, censor news and commentary because of political bias. More than half (52%) of all voters think it is “very likely,” but only 39% of Democrat voters think it’s highly likely.

Fully 72% of all voters call politically-biased social media censorship a problem, including half (49%) who say it’s a “very serious” problem. Among Democrats, however, fewer (63%) believe it’s a problem, with just 31% citing it as a very serious one.

And, while two-thirds (66%) of all likely voters would like to see Congress investigate social media censorship once Republicans take control of the House, only about half (52%) of Democrats approve of an investigation. Forty-three (43%) of all voters and 24% of Democrats “strongly approve” of Congress looking into the matter.

Conversely, Democrat voters are much more in favor of social media platforms censoring what they deem to be so-called “misinformation.”

In one question, Rasmussen asked:

“Social media companies say they need to control content on their sites to prevent the spread of ‘misinformation’ about controversial topics. How serious of a problem is ‘misinformation’ on social media?”

In this case, 87% of Democrat voters consider social media “misinformation” to be either a very serious (57%) or somewhat serious (30%) problem, compared to 73% of all likely voters (48% “very serious,” 25% “somewhat serious”).

Giant social media companies have come under fire for suppressing conservative content, prompting the Media Research Center to launch Free Speech America and its CensorTrack database documenting specific examples of censorship by influential social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter.

On December 2, new Twitter Owner Elon Musk began releasing evidence of how the social media behemoth had previously censored conservative posts, particularly regarding the Hunter Biden laptop scandal in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election.

The national survey of 1,000 U.S. likely voters was conducted December 8 and 11, 2022 by Rasmussen Reports.

Read more at Rasmussen Reports.

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