Poll: Majority of Americans Think Facebook Has Too Much Power
Jose Nino
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Fox News polls reveal that more than 60 percent of American voters believe Facebook has too much power, according to a new poll that was conducted during a time when the tech giant is under increased political scrutiny.
Sixty-one percent of voters questioned by Fox News believed Facebook has “too much power.” Forty-eight percent echoed similar sentiments about Google, followed by Amazon at 45 percent, and Apple at 43 percent.
However, only 35 percent of those polled said that they saw “big technology companies” are a larger threat to the country’s future than “big government.” Instead, fifty-eight percent of voters told Fox News pollsters that “big government” poses a larger threat.
The poll was disseminated as the Trump administration and Congress proceed to investigate the power that tech companies such as Facebook and Google possess. The House Judiciary Committee started its antitrust investigation earlier this month, while the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice are preparing to launch probes into the companies’ anticompetitive practices.
Additionally, the FTC has also conducted an investigation on Facebook’s potential data privacy violations for over a year. However, this has not been enough for Facebook critics, who believe the agency should be taking more decisive action by imposing stringent penalties on the powerful social media company.
Sarah Miller, co-chairwoman of the Freedom from Facebook campaign, declared in a statement that the poll demonstrates that “consumers are sick and tired of Facebook’s reckless behavior.”
The Facebook watchdog leader added, “The FTC needs to stop dragging their feet and find Facebook in violation of its consent decree, and break up its monopoly.”
This week, The Verge reported on the death of a Facebook content moderator who worked for a Facebook contractor in Tampa Bay. The story was kept under wraps for the past few months, but once former employees broke the details, it revealed the disturbing work environment at Facebook and its various contractors. The moderator in question was tasked with spending long hours policing content at Facebook.
Incidents like these and the recent wave of censorship Facebook has levied against certain right-wingers show that the Big Tech company’s once shiny image is slowly becoming tarnished thanks to its corporate policies.
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