As online content increasingly shapes the thinking and attitudes of the Internet users, more Americans than before now back the idea of government restricting false information online.
However, the majority of people believe it is the tech companies that should take care of the false information instead of the government, according to a new Pew Research survey.
In the last few years, Americans have been grappling with the question of the free flow of content on the Internet that pitched the freedom of information against the spread of false information.
That question gained prominence during the 2016 elections season when the then-candidate Donald Trump made unsubstantiated claims. Recently, however, it is the pandemic and its available panacea, the vaccines, which have been subjected to a lot of misinformation to the detriment of public health.
A Pew Research survey of 11,178 adults, conducted July 26-Aug. 8, 2021, finds that roughly half of U.S. adults (48%) now say the government should take steps to restrict false information, even if it means losing some freedom to access and publish content.
The ratio of those opposing the view in favor of maintaining protection of the freedom of information – even if it means some misinformation is published online – has decreased from 58% to 50%.
However, since 2018 partisan views have also come to the forefront of the issue. According to Pew Research, until 2018 followers of both parties felt that freedom of information was to be preferred over the governmental control on the Internet content. Among Republicans and Republican-leaning people, 60 percent saw such thinking as preferable. Among Democrats and Democratic-leaning people, 57 percent espoused such thinking.
But three years down the lane, the followers of the two parties have drifted away in their responses. As of now, 70% of Republicans support safeguarding freedoms “even it if means some false information is published.”
On the other end of the spectrum, 65% of Democrats are in favor of the government restricting false information, “even if it means limiting freedom of information,” the findings suggest.
An interesting assessment of the survey says compared with the past, now Americans of all ages and educational attainment groups are fairly evenly divided between the two views.
In the gender context, women have been found to be more open than men to the idea of both the government and tech companies restricting false information online, whereas both men and women are now a bit more supportive of the government taking such steps.
