Survey: 44% of Americans think tech giants should be regulated more, down from 56% in April 2021, while 1 in 5 explicitly want less regulation, up from 1 in 10
Well. Trump and Lindsey backed down. https://twitter.com/... @ceidotorg : According to @pewresearch the share of conservative Republicans who support greater government regulation of major tech companies has declined sharply since 2021. @HawleyMO hardest hit https://www.pewresearch.org/ ... https://twitter.com/... Scott Lincicome / @scottlincicome : “A declining share of Americans favor more government regulation of major technology companies.... These changes are particularly pronounced among Republicans and independents who lean toward the Republican Party” https://www.pewresearch.org/ ... https://twitter.com/... Kyle Plotkin / @kjplotkin : Important context for this tweet trying to imply Republicans don't want Big Tech regulated. Pew surveyed adults, not likely voters. Only the latter really impacts public policy. See an actual poll of GOP primary voters here: https://www.foxbusiness.com/ ... https://twitter.com/... @neil_chilson : Support for more big tech regulation no longer has majority support. And it's crashed for conservative Republicans, down from 59% to 35%. At that same time, a 25 point rise in conservative Republicans who say there should be *less* gov reg of big tech. https://www.pewresearch.org/ ... James Czerniawski / @jamescz19 : I say it time and time again. The American people are telling Congress repeatedly what they care about. Inflation, “it's the economy, stupid”, jobs, healthcare. Tech regs isn't even remotely close to what the average American wants/needs. Americans deserve better. https://twitter.com/...
Pew Research CenterEmily A. Vogels
Context & Ripple Effects
The regulation wave crested fast: an Axios poll in early 2018 found 55% of Americans favoring government regulation of big tech, up from 40% just months earlier, and by late 2018 a 15-point spike in fears that big tech would escape regulation altogether. That momentum carried into 2021, when a Morning Consult poll showed 53% of voters at least somewhat backing Congress' Big Tech antitrust bills.
This new Pew survey marks the turn: overall support for more regulation has slipped to 44% from 56% in April 2021, while explicit demand for less regulation doubled to 20%. The shift is concentrated on the right — conservative Republican support fell from 59% to 35% — which explains why the description frames it as Trump and Lindsey backing down and Sen. Hawley 'hardest hit': the GOP's anti-Big Tech wing is losing its own base.
First-order effects
Republican lawmakers championing Big Tech antitrust legislation, like Hawley, now lack majority support within their own party's base, undercutting the bipartisan framing those bills depended on.
Tech companies facing regulatory pressure get immediate relief on one flank: the constituency pushing hardest for action — conservative Republicans — has shrunk by roughly 24 percentage points since 2021.
Second-order effects
The coalition behind Congress' antitrust bills, which already faced low prioritization among voters per the Morning Consult polling, loses its Republican pillar, leaving Democrats to carry the regulatory agenda alone and likely stalling legislative momentum.
With Republicans softening, the pressure point shifts toward issues that still poll as bipartisan — such as data handling, where related surveys show majorities of both parties wanting more control over company use of personal data.
Third-order effects
If the pattern holds, Big Tech regulation reverts from a rare bipartisan cause to a partisan one, making sweeping antitrust action dependent on unified Democratic control of government rather than cross-party consensus.
The durable exception appears to be privacy: even amid declining general-regulation sentiment, both parties' bases still broadly support limits on what companies do with personal data, pointing regulators toward privacy rules as the politically survivable path.
The trend: American appetite for regulating major tech companies peaked around 2021 and is now polarizing along party lines, with privacy emerging as the issue that retains cross-partisan support.
the GOP wants you to believe that ANY content moderation of race-baiting political propaganda AT ALL is censorship. the goal is to force big tech to carry authoritarian propaganda, which is all they have as a party with unpopular policies and a shrinking electorate
GOP lawmakers in Washington are eager to bang a drum real loudly for regulating big tech over unproven allegations of bias. GOP voters believe overwhelmingly bias is real, but their support for tech regulation has fallen pretty considerably, per Pew
“A declining share of Americans favor more government regulation of major technology companies.... These changes are particularly pronounced among Republicans and independents who lean toward the Republican Party” https://www.pewresearch.org/ ... https://twitter.com/...
Unsurprising. Top Republicans used to turn to me for insights about how to limit extremists' exploitations of social media. They were concerned about ISIS. When they realized regulations would affect far-right groups' influence capabilities— Well. Trump and Lindsey backed down. h…
Important context for this tweet trying to imply Republicans don't want Big Tech regulated. Pew surveyed adults, not likely voters. Only the latter really impacts public policy. See an actual poll of GOP primary voters here: https://www.foxbusiness.com/ ... https://twitter.com/..…
Support for more big tech regulation no longer has majority support. And it's crashed for conservative Republicans, down from 59% to 35%. At that same time, a 25 point rise in conservative Republicans who say there should be *less* gov reg of big tech. https://www.pewresearch.org…
According to @pewresearch the share of conservative Republicans who support greater government regulation of major tech companies has declined sharply since 2021. @HawleyMO hardest hit https://www.pewresearch.org/ ... https://twitter.com/...
I say it time and time again. The American people are telling Congress repeatedly what they care about. Inflation, “it's the economy, stupid”, jobs, healthcare. Tech regs isn't even remotely close to what the average American wants/needs. Americans deserve better. https://twitter…
This research is wild. Shows that despite all of the GOP howling from Hawley types about how “big tech” must be “regulated,” support among Republicans for regulating big tech is actually down, dramatically: https://www.pewresearch.org/ ... https://twitter.com/...
despite all the sound and fury of the last few years about how hot DC was for “antitrust reform” I'll not be shocked if the era ends with little to no actual fixes for any the valid problems in big tech (privacy, consolidation) just a big dumb, corrupt noise machine
support for “regulating” big tech (what this actually means in practice likely varies depending how full your head is of mashed potatoes) is also down on the left: https://twitter.com/...
Any thoughts on what might explain the nosedive in Republican support for more tech regulation? https://www.pewresearch.org/ ... https://twitter.com/...
the GOP goal has been to argue that ANY content moderation of race-baiting political propaganda AT ALL is censorship. the goal is to force big tech to carry hateful propaganda, which is all they have as a party with unpopular policies facing unfavorable demographic shifts
the survey also makes it clear GOP messaging that tries to conflate belated, sloppy moderation of propaganda and hate speech by social media (which data shows is widely coming from the U.S. right wing) with “widespread political censorship by big tech.” https://twitter.com/...