Many believe government should ‘be able to censor users/content on social media platforms’
Jason Cohen
Daily Caller News Foundation
Just over one-third of Democratic voters think Americans are too free, according to a poll released on Friday by RealClearPolitics (RCP).
The survey found that 34% of Democratic voters believe that Americans possess “too much freedom” compared to just 14.6% of Republican voters. Although an overwhelming portion of U.S. voters believe that freedom of speech protections are beneficial, 52% of Democratic voters believe it is important “that the government be able to censor users/content on social media platforms it feels threaten national security.”
Over half of Democratic voters also believe that government censorship ability takes precedence over “social media users be[ing] able to post content they feel are in the national interest,” according to the poll. In contrast, one-third of Republicans hold this belief.
Additionally, approximately 75% of Democratic voters believe the government should censor “hateful” social media content, according to the poll.
Democratic lawmakers recently attempted to censor Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. by removing him from a hearing focused on censorship in July.
“Overall, 9 in 10 voters in the U.S. think First Amendment protections for freedom of speech is a good thing, while only 9% think it is a bad thing,” RCP pollster Spencer Kimball stated. “This is agreed upon across the demographics, like party affiliation, age, and race.”
Furthermore, 46% of Republican voters believe Americans have “too little freedom,” according to the poll. Over half of Republican voters “strongly agreed” with the sentiment that “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it” compared to just 31% of Democratic voters, according to the poll.
During the 2020 campaign, President Joe Biden’s then-campaign staff and the Democratic National Committee flagged posts for Twitter to censor, according to the “Twitter Files,” which were internal company documents revealing censorship.
Among those surveyed, 42% of voters under 30 endorse government social media censorship to safeguard the country’s security, according to the poll.
Similarly, a poll found that nearly half of millennials aged 25-34 agree that “misgendering” should be a crime, according to polling conducted exclusively for Newsweek in July.
RCP’s poll surveyed roughly 1,000 registered voters online on Sept. 7-8, and had a credibility interval of 3 percentage points.
This story originally was published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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