/
Navigation
Chronicles
Browse all articles
Explore
Semantic exploration
Research
Entity momentum
Nexus
Correlations & relationships
Story Arc
Topic evolution
Drift Map
Semantic trajectory animation
Posts
Analysis & commentary
Pulse API
Tech news intelligence API
Browse
Entities
Companies, people, products, technologies
Domains
Browse by publication source
Handles
Browse by social media handle
Detection
Concept Search
Semantic similarity search
High Impact Stories
Top coverage by position
Sentiment Analysis
Positive/negative coverage
Anomaly Detection
Unusual coverage patterns
Analysis
Rivalry Report
Compare two entities head-to-head
Semantic Pivots
Narrative discontinuities
Crisis Response
Event recovery patterns
Connected
Search: /
Command: ⌘K
Embeddings: large
TEXXR

Chronicles

The story behind the story

days · browse · Enter similar · o open

Survey of 1,058 US internet users: 72% distrust Facebook, 63% TikTok, 60% Instagram, 53% WhatsApp, and 53% YouTube; 53% trust Amazon, 48% Google, and 44% Apple

You'll find all the usual technology suspects inside Mary Veselka's Pearland, Tex., home.  There's her iPhone …

Washington Post

Context & Ripple Effects

Facebook's trust problem predates this survey: a 2018 Reuters/Ipsos poll found far less confidence in Facebook's privacy-law compliance than in Amazon, Google, Microsoft, or Apple. It also extended beyond privacy, with a 2020 survey finding widespread distrust of Facebook for political and election news.

The new results broaden that comparative picture across major social and video services, while Amazon, Google, and Apple hold the leading trust positions in the same respondent group.

First-order effects

  • Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, WhatsApp, and YouTube are immediately positioned as the least-trusted major services in the survey, with Facebook showing the deepest deficit.
  • Amazon, Google, and Apple gain a measurable reputational distinction from the social platforms, even though none commands trust from a majority except Amazon.

Second-order effects

  • The gap makes trust a clearer competitive dimension separating Amazon, Google, and Apple from services used primarily for social, messaging, and video activity.
  • Facebook and the other distrusted platforms face a tougher baseline for persuading users that their data, information, and communications practices deserve confidence.

Third-order effects

  • If repeated surveys sustain the divide, platform competition will increasingly separate user reach from institutional trust: widely used services will not necessarily carry the credibility needed for more sensitive user relationships.
  • Trust becomes infrastructure for platform expansion, rewarding companies that can maintain confidence across products rather than relying on scale alone.

The trend: Major consumer platforms are becoming differentiated not only by reach and features, but by whether users regard them as trustworthy stewards of data, communications, and information.

Discussion

  • @jesselehrich Jesse Lehrich on x
    new @washingtonpost poll is the latest to find that surveillance advertising is DEEPLY unpopular. also, by a nearly 6-1 margin, Americans say Facebook has a negative impact on society. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
  • @sfcpoll Scott Clement on x
    New this morning: 64% of Americans say the government should do more to regulate how Internet companies handle privacy issues, up from 38% in 2012. From a Washington Post - @ScharSchool national poll on tech and privacy issues https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... https://twitter.c…
  • @emgusk Emily Guskin on x
    So much agreement in this poll across political parties! Story here and crosstabs in thread. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
  • @drewharwell Drew Harwell on x
    Most Americans think their phones are listening because they've seen ads for stuff they were just talking about. No proof, but hard to dispel, when the (creepy) reality is that companies know so much about us they don't need to listen https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... @heatherk…
  • @sfcpoll Scott Clement on x
    Americans really don't like targeted online ads https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
  • @eugene_scott Eugene Scott on x
    “It's the rare thing that Americans of all ages and across the political spectrum largely seem to agree on: They don't trust social media services with their information and they view targeted ads as annoying and invasive.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
  • @jeffjarvis Jeff Jarvis on x
    Classic case of media's self-fulfilling prophesies. Media harp on an idea and then take a poll to reveal that harping works. Billions still use these services. Billions speak there. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
  • @washingtonpost @washingtonpost on x
    Americans widely distrust Facebook, TikTok and Instagram with their data and want privacy laws, poll finds https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
  • @b_fung Brian Fung on x
    Worth taking with a grain of salt as it looks at data from the end-ish of the year, but Cloudflare notes TikTok is now consistently the internet's most popular domain, surpassing Google. https://blog.cloudflare.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
  • @flyfazfly Fadzai Madzingira on x
    This is exactly why conversations around online safety can't just be about Facebook! We need to have an expansive convo beyond it & the top layer of the stack! *throws ✋🏾✋🏾 up in Facebook Files Fatigue)* https://twitter.com/...
  • @liahaberman Lia Haberman on x
    Most popular domains (late) 2021 1 TikTok 2 Google 3 Facebook 4 Microsoft 5 Apple 6 Amazon 7 Netflix 8 YouTube 9 Twitter 10 WhatsApp https://blog.cloudflare.com/ ...
  • @epro Emil Protalinski on x
    Quick reminder that the top pandemic tech company is not Amazon, Netflix, or Zoom. It's TikTok. https://twitter.com/...
  • @rsbutner @rsbutner on x
    Another sign that studying online content, misinfo or otherwise, will never be as easy as it currently is ever again. The content only gets more technically difficult to assess at any meaningful scale (if you can get it), and regulation must think beyond a specific platform. http…
  • @carnage4life Dare Obasanjo on x
    TikTok is now the most popular website on earth, surpassing Google, Facebook & Microsoft sites this year according to Cloudflare. Turns out there was something to pivoting to video after all. https://blog.cloudflare.com/ ...
  • @evelyndouek Evelyn Douek on x
    Maybe Congress should pay a little more attention to it then? Perhaps? When thinking about platform regulation? Just an idea! https://www.theatlantic.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
  • @ericxtang Erictang.Eth on x
    This is surprising and incredibly bullish for the world of video. Tiktok is the #1 domain of 2021. https://twitter.com/...
  • @cloudflare @cloudflare on x
    How Cloudflare saw Internet traffic, focusing on specific domains and their highs and lows, in our global popularity ranking. https://blog.cloudflare.com/ ... #CloudflareRadar