Americans Are Losing Faith in Social Media

Facebook came under increased scrutiny last week after the New York Times released a report on the company’s executive leadership team, painting a picture of mismanagement and internal discord in the face of numerous scandals.

According to a recent Survey Monkey poll published in Axios, the share of people who believe social media helps free speech and democracy has fallen since last year. About 53 percent of people surveyed last year believed social media helped the workings of a democracy. Now, the most recent polls show that just 40 percent of people surveyed believe the same thing.

People’s views of social media largely align with their partisanship. A year ago, 61 percent of Democrats believed social media could be helpful to democracy. Now only half of Democrats hold that same belief. The biggest difference between last years vote of confidence in social media and this year’s social media ratings happened among Independents with a 16 percent drop in social media’s perception among that group of partisan Americans.