U.S. Adults' Views on Social Media Regulation in 12+ Charts

Social media companies are facing calls to more actively regulate their platforms amid scrutiny of how they handle content moderation and users’ personal data. In particular, U.S. lawmakers have turned their attention to Chinese-developed platforms such as TikTok, proposing bans that have sparked debates among both U.S. and Chinese consumers.

This Chart Pack dives into Morning Consult’s public opinion survey data on social media regulation through more than a dozen charts. This is the second of two Chart Packs exploring trends in social media. The previous Chart Pack examined consumer trust and usage trends in social media.

Chart Pack highlights:

• Social media users trust themselves to protect their personal data much more than they trust social media companies. Only 38% of U.S. adults said they trust social media companies to protect their data, compared with 86% who said they trust themselves.
• Democratic voters are nearly twice as likely as Republicans to favor stricter content moderation for social media platforms. Meanwhile, 3 in 5 Republicans would rather social media platforms not change or even loosen their content moderation policies, compared with a near majority of registered voters.
• More than half of U.S. adults support banning apps from hostile foreign countries. But Gen Zers are much less likely to back such restrictions, and younger consumers are more likely to consider moving to a new state if theirs were to ban an app they regularly used.