Poll of US adults: 62% say social media has “too much control” over the mix of news we see on their platforms, and 55% say this results in a worse mix of news
By late 2019, Pew had spent three years documenting a paradox: a majority of Americans were getting news through social feeds — 62% as early as May 2016 — while steadily losing faith in how those feeds are assembled. Earlier surveys found 72% believed platforms censor opposing views and that the share calling the internet good for society was slipping.
Facebook, YouTube and Twitter face a legitimacy problem with the very audience they distribute to: a 55% majority says algorithmic control produces a worse news mix, so engagement gains come at a reputational cost.
Publishers dependent on platform distribution inherit that distrust — traffic arriving through feeds carries an audience that believes the mix itself is degraded.
Second-order effects
With majorities already skeptical of moderation competence (69% had little or no confidence platforms would identify problematic content correctly), the findings hand regulators and lawmakers a ready-made public mandate for oversight of ranking and curation practices.
Platforms under pressure may respond by surfacing more explicit user controls over feeds or labeling curated choices, shifting product roadmaps toward transparency features rather than pure engagement optimization.
Third-order effects
If the pattern holds — distrust of curation compounding into distrust of platform power — news distribution structurally migrates away from opaque feeds toward channels where the editorial logic is visible, whether direct subscriptions, search, or regulated intermediaries.
The polling trajectory from 'too much control over the mix' to 'too much political power' suggests algorithmic curation becomes a standing subject of policy debate rather than a private design decision.
The trend: Public sentiment is converging on the view that feed algorithms are de facto editors, moving platform news curation from a design question toward a governance question.
35% of Americans say that censorship of news organizations on social media sites is a very big problem. https://www.journalism.org/... https://twitter.com/...
Of the seven issues asked about, about half of U.S. adults say that one-sided news (53%) and inaccurate news (51%) are very big problems when it comes to news on social media. https://www.journalism.org/... https://twitter.com/...
News and data nerds: Feast on this demographic profile of those who get news on various social media platforms. New @pewresearch @pewjournalism report https://www.journalism.org/... https://twitter.com/...
Chart of the day: the share of Americans who get news from 11 different social media platforms. Facebook has by far the biggest crowd. @PewJournalism has all the details: https://www.journalism.org/... https://twitter.com/...
Signature report from @PewJournalism is out today: Social media and news. Main findings link to tech wariness: 62% of Amer say social media companies have too much control over news people see 55% say firms' efforts result in worse mix of news https://www.journalism.org/... https…
75% of Republicans say social media companies have too much control over the mix of news people see, compared with 53% of Democrats. More Republicans than Democrats also say these efforts result in a worse mix of news for users. https://www.journalism.org/... https://twitter.com/…
Most Americans say that social media companies favor some news orgs over others. When asked what news organizations they think are favored, majorities say those with sensational content, a lot of social media followers, or partisan coverage. Report: https://pewrsr.ch/2mTXT6k pic.…
Social media sites Americans use most commonly for news: Facebook: 52% YouTube: 28% Twitter: 17% Instagram: 14% https://pewrsr.ch/2mUj1ta pic.twitter.com/XbkefFJnLF