Yesterday the Media Research Center released the results of a poll showing that self-described conservatives are tired of having content that aligns with their values blocked, hidden, or removed from the social media platform. The poll was conducted by McLaughlin & Associates to gauge the attitudes of conservatives towards Facebook and similar tech and media companies.
The poll reveals that roughly one-third or 32% of individuals who describe themselves as conservatives have already left or plan to leave Facebook over censorship issues. Two thirds or 66% of the conservative individuals stated that they do not trust Facebook to treat its users with equality irrespective of their political differences. About 65% of conservatives also said that they think companies like Facebook, Twitter, Google, Amazon, etc., purposely censor conservatives. About 7.5% of conservatives said they had already left Facebook because of its censorship of conservative content.
Here are some of the sample questions asked in the poll (taken from CNSNews.com):
Do you believe social media companies (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) are purposefully censoring conservatives and conservative ideas from their sites?
- Yes: 64.6%
- No: 10.8%
- Not Sure: 24.6%
Do You Trust Facebook to treat all of its users equally, regardless of their political beliefs:
- Yes: 17.1%
- No: 66.1%
- Not sure: 16.8%
Is your trust of Facebook greater than, less than, or the same as it was one year ago?
- Greater: 6.8%
- Less than: 66.9%
- The same: 26.2%
Media Research Center President Brent Bozell issued the following statement concerning this new poll in the wake of controversies surrounding social media companies:
“These numbers are devastating to any CEO responsible for addressing the concerns of his customer base. According to this survey, 7% of conservatives have already left Facebook and another 25% are seriously considering it. That’s nearly one-third (32%) of conservatives on Facebook — potentially tens of millions of consumers. To make matters worse, two-thirds of conservative Facebook users trust Facebook less than they did a year ago. These trends should set off alarm bells at Facebook headquarters. They are bleeding a major customer base.
“The question Facebook and other social media companies need to ask themselves is this: Do you want to be seen as an open platform for all political beliefs or would you rather be considered a left-wing public interest group that censors free speech worldwide? The latter will prove to be unbelievably costly. Censorship on social media is no longer a hypothetical; it’s reality. So too is the evidence that this censorship is pointing to a massive conservative exodus.“
The survey polled 1,000 voters in the latest general election. 351 of those polled self-identified as conservatives for the period of August 22nd-August 29th, 2018.
