Majority of Americans distrust social media companies on policing harmful content: Poll

A poll conducted by Gallup and the Knight Foundation on Tuesday found that the majority of Americans do not trust the social media companies to make the right choices about the kind of content that should be allowed on their platforms, and they distrust governments more to make the right decision for them.

According to the polls, around two-thirds of Americans want the social media platforms to allow people to express their views no matter how offensive it is. Around 85% of respondents were in favour of removing intentionally false or misleading health information and 81% supported removing intentionally misleading claims about political issues and the upcoming presidential election.

Big tech companies like Facebook and Twitter were criticised for not being able to police harmful content with seventy-one percent of Democrats and 54% of independents recommending to toughen up measures while Republicans had mixed views on the matter.

80% of respondents said they do not trust big tech companies to make the right decisions on content, but private companies should be allowed to make rules about policing content online. However, majority of democrats stated that the government should have a say on content guidelines. 

Notably, the distrust in the online content intensified in the US due to the coverage of the COVID-19 outbreak, and the run-up to the U.S. election.