Most Americans Support Censoring Hate Speech on Social Media: Poll

A new poll shows Republicans and Democrats are mostly united on an issue that has previously garnered strictly partisan support. A poll by YouGov found the majority of Americans—consisting of 80 percent of Democrats and nearly 60 percent of Republicans—believe social media companies have a responsibility to prevent users from posting hate speech.

The issue has often been a topic of debate split down party lines. Some Republicans, such as former President Donald Trump, have lashed out against media companies for restricting opinionated posts and touted apps that claim to protect free speech, such as Trump's Truth Social platform. Other celebrities, such as Tesla CEO Elon Musk, have proposed purchasing major social media sites and loosening the rules around censoring posts.

One social media app may soon fall under the ownership of Kanye West, who legally changed his name to Ye last year. Ye has agreed to buy conservative social networking service Parler after he was suspended from Instagram and Twitter for posting antisemitic comments last week.

YouGov conducted the poll after Ye's suspension, and the results showed bipartisan support when it comes to social media sites monitoring and restricting certain content. Republicans and Democrats tended to both believe that social media sites were responsible for preventing users from harassing others on the site and from posting hate speech. However, the topic trended more partisan when voters were asked if social media sites should prevent users from spreading conspiracy theories or false information, with 49 percent of Republicans agreeing. Seventy-nine percent of Democratic voters agreed.

The topic became more partisan as deeper questions were asked, such as when a social media site should suspend a user's account.

Americans were asked on whether accounts should be suspended if posts included violent content, content that promotes racial division, antisemitic content, hate speech and disinformation. At least 80 percent of Democrats supported suspending an account violating each of the five cases, but Republican numbers were lower. Two-thirds of Republican voters supported suspending an account that violated the first four topics, but only 50 percent of Republican voters thought an account should be suspended for sharing disinformation, as opposed to 82 percent of Democrats.

Leeza Garber, cybersecurity attorney and internet law lecturer at The Wharton School, told Newsweek that Americans want more transparency and a unified approach from social media sites when it comes to moderating posts. Garber said many times, social media platforms may have moderation policies in place but each platform has its own process.

"When we look at the policies that each social media platform has in place related to how they moderate—and they're moderating for things like disinformation, misinformation, bullying, hate speech, you name it—their policies are all very different. There are different teams in place doing the moderating," said Garber, who wrote Can. Trust. Will. Hiring for the Human Element in the New Age of Cybersecurity. "I think what users of these platforms really want is transparency in how [social media sites] are moderating and rules that are applied across the board equally."

Even when social media sites do enact moderation policies and restrict what users can post in terms of disinformation, some false posts sneak through. In September, NewsGuard investigated TikTok when health misinformation, such as claims that herbs could induce abortions or that COVID-19 vaccines harmed organs, was found on the site despite TikTok's community guidelines.

"Our Community Guidelines make clear that we do not allow harmful misinformation, including medical misinformation, and we will remove it from the platform," a TikTok spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Newsweek. "We partner with credible voices to elevate authoritative content on topics related to public health, and partner with independent fact-checkers who help us to assess the accuracy of content."