Common Ground • July 18th, 2022

Here's Where Democrats and Republicans Agree on Social Media Issues

Image by Jason Howie/ Flickr

Social media has undeniably shaped how all of us consume news and perceive the world. This has resulted in calls from the left and the right to reign in Big Tech – though for different reasons. The left is more concerned about online safety and misinformation and the right is worried about unfair censorship. While much of the backlash is bipartisan, there is dissent about some of the proposed solutions.

There are many areas of social media issues that both sides agree upon. Here are a few examples of data and stories to support that:

2024 Pew Research data suggests YouTube continues to be the most used social media platform by all Americans, with 85% of Americans using YouTube, 15 points higher than the runner-up, Facebook (70%).
82% of Republicans, 74% of Democrats, and 83% of Independents sometimes or never trust Facebook to do the right thing, according to the 2021 Harvard Youth Poll. 85% of Republicans and 71% of Democrats, 81% of Independents sometimes or never trust Twitter to do the right thing.
According to a 2024 Tech Policy Press/YouGov poll, 86% of Americans either strongly or somewhat support legislation to ban social media corporations from collecting personal data on minors under 18.
There is multi-partisan support for implementing a strict smartphone ban in elementary schools, with 82% of Democrats, 78% of Independents, and 90% of Republicans in favor, according to 2024 Tech Policy Press/YouGov data.
According to the same source, 69% of Democrats, 63% of Independents, and 62% of Republicans support a Surgeon General Warning for social media, warning it may have significant mental health harms.
Data from The Cato Institute (Lean Right) and YouGov’s 2021 Speech and Social Media Survey found:
- 69% of strong liberals and 71% of strong conservatives agree that the government does not understand technology enough to regulate it wisely.
- 61% of strong liberals and strong conservatives and 54% of moderates favor regulation to limit political bias in social media censorship and terms and conditions enforcement.
- 62% of Democrats and 69% of Republicans say people should not be able to sue Facebook and Twitter for the content their users post.
- Most Americans think social media has been good for them personally, but bad for society as a whole. 72% of strong liberals, 73% of liberals, 69% of moderates, 61% of conservatives, and 56% of strong conservatives agree that social media has been good for them personally. Only strong liberals say that social media is good for society (52%), while 52% of liberals, 57% of moderates, 67% of conservatives, and 67% of strong conservatives say it is negative for society.
2024 Pew data provides a few insights on public opinion surrounding social media & tech companies:
- Americans tend to agree that “social media companies have too much power and influence in today’s politics”. 74% of Democrats, 78% of Independents, and 84% of Republicans agree according to 2024 Pew data.
- In terms of regulating tech companies, 60% of Democrats, 51% of Independents, and 45% of Republicans are in favor of government regulation (only 15 point spread).
- There is also multi-partisan agreement that social media platforms likely censor content that they find to be objectionable. 83% of American adults agree social media sites intentionally censor disagreeable content, along with 74% of Democrats and 93% of Republicans.

See more examples of common ground on issues where you might not expect to find it:

Clare Ashcraft is the Bridging Intern at AllSides. She has a Center bias.

This piece was reviewed by Julie Mastrine, Director of Marketing and Media Bias Ratings (Lean Right bias), and Andrew Weinzierl, Director of Research and Data Journalism (Lean Left).

Common Ground,Social Media,Big Tech