For Immediate Release
July 23, 2020
Contact: press@accountabletech.org

Summary

According to new exclusive polling conducted by GQR, Americans overwhelmingly agree that social media companies should do more to combat online hate and misinformation, that Big Tech companies have too much power, and that the Stop Hate For Profit campaign is demanding much-need reforms. Additionally, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is now incredibly unpopular with the American people. Zuckerberg’s favorability is 36 points underwater, a 63 point drop from just four years ago. More than 7-in-10 Americans say Zuckerberg has too much power as the CEO and majority shareholder of Facebook and the only individual or institution polled that was less popular than Zuckerberg was the Tobacco Industry.

Key Findings

• Voters believe that Facebook generally does more harm than good.
• Voters overwhelmingly agree with politicians being subject to same fact-checking rules as everyone else.
• As the CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg is now very unpopular.
• Americans overwhelmingly believe that Big Tech companies have too much power, 85-15% (+70).
• A strong majority say platforms will not prevent election misuse.
• Social media platform policy changes are overwhelmingly popular across the political spectrum.
• The Stop Hate For Profit campaign has gone mainstream and has overwhelming support, boosting brands that participate.
• Americans strongly agree with the Stop Hate For Profit demands.

Voters believe that Facebook generally does more harm than good

Voters overwhelmingly agree with politicians being subject to the same fact-checking rules as everyone else

• 67-33% (+34) want Facebook to start fact-checking posts and speech from politicians and elected officials.

• 66-34% (+32) want Facebook to stop recommending or amplifying groups or content from groups associated with hate, misinformation, or conspiracies to users of Facebook.
• 63-37% (+26) want Facebook to change their policies that will help stop radicalization and hate on their platform.
• 60-39% (+21) want Facebook to create an automatic system that will flag hateful content in private Facebook groups for a human being to review.
• 57-42 (+15) want Facebook to submit to regular, third party, independent audits of identity-based hate and misinformation with summary results published on a publicly accessible website.

As the CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg is now very unpopular.

With 98% name ID, Zuckerberg has a 20-56% unfavorable view (-36).

• Sheryl Sandberg (61% ID) has a 10-22% unfavorable rating (-12).
• Elon Musk (90% ID) has a 30-32% unfavorable rating (-2).
• Jeff Bezos (91% ID) has a 27-38% unfavorable rating (-11).
• Jack Dorsey (55% ID) has a 10-18% unfavorable rating (-8).
• Zuckerberg has fallen from +27 in 2016 to -36 in 2020, a 63 point swing.

73-26% (+47) say Zuckerberg has too much power as the CEO and majority shareholder of Facebook.

• 4-in-10 Americans say Mark Zuckerberg should resign from Facebook.
• The only individual or institution that polled worse than Mark Zuckerberg was the Tobacco Industry at 12-75% disapprove (-63).

Americans overwhelmingly believe that Big Tech companies have too much power, 85-15% (+70).

• 69% of respondents said that Facebook has too much power.
• 51% said Amazon has too much power.
• 47% said Google has too much power.
• Nearly 6-in-10 Americans think social media has a negative impact on society, 26-58% (-32).

A strong majority say platforms will not prevent election misuse

Social media platform policy changes are overwhelmingly popular across the political spectrum.

• 82-18% (+62) want bans on political ads with false information.
• 83-17% (+65) want bans on false claims about voting.
• 83-16% (+67) want warning labels placed on accounts that frequently spread false information.
• 82-17% (+65) want to restrict the use of personal data for targeting political ads.
• 73-26% (+48) want to allow users to choose whether or not the social media site curates the content they see for them based on their personal data.

The Stop Hate For Profit campaign has gone mainstream and has overwhelming support, boosting brands that participate.

• 55% of Americans have already heard of the advertiser boycott of Facebook in July.
• When asked if they support companies pulling ads from Facebook over their failure to stop the spread of hate speech, 74-25% agree (+49).
• When asked if they would feel more or less favorable of a company participating in the boycotts, 47-22% would feel more favorable (+25).
• When asked if they would be more or less likely to buy from companies boycotting Facebook, 34-19% would be more likely to buy (+16).

Americans strongly agree with the Stop Hate For Profit demands:

• 67-32% (+35) want Facebook to find and remove groups focused on hateful speech like white supremacy, militia, antisemitism, Holocaust denialism, vaccine misinformation, and climate change denialism.

• 67-33% (+34) want Facebook to start fact-checking posts and speech from politicians and elected officials.
• 66-34% (+32) say it is a priority for Facebook to stop recommending or amplifying groups or content from groups associated with hate, misinformation, or conspiracies.