[ad_1]
Bashing Big Tech has become a rare pastime in these divided times. But the more obscure views, in the world of thumbs-up and crying emoticons, can be hard to spot.
Researchers at Utah State University’s Center for Growth and Opportunity want to shed more light on how Americans view and view our biggest tech companies.
The Center worked with YouGov on a recent poll, which found there was a lot of mistrust. But in terms of Facebook relationship status – it’s complicated.
“Marketplace Tech” got exclusive early access to the Center’s latest election results. Megan McCarthy Carino, Director of Technology and Innovation at CGO, Taylor Barclays, discusses which companies people trust or don’t trust, and the different factors behind these trust issues.
The following is an edited transcript of their speech.
Taylor Barkley: So in our latest poll, TikTok and Facebook were the most trusted companies and Amazon and Google were the most trusted.
Meghan McCarty Carino: What do you think informs the difference you see there?
Barkley: You know, it’s hard to say for sure. But what really stood out in our data was the level of party identification and political activity. So we asked respondents whether they were conservative, liberal or Democrat, Republican, as well as four categories to measure political interest – “hardly” and the other end being “often”. And those who paid attention often had the highest levels of trust, and those who rarely paid attention to political issues had the lowest levels of trust or confidence. Another thing that jumped out at us in our survey this year and the previous three surveys are social media companies. More than others on the list, they’re dealing with speech issues. I think that the people are the judges of speech and of course matters of speech can spill over into political matters. So people who usually pay attention to politics, as opposed to not at all, I think this will greatly reduce their perception and trust in these companies.
McCarthy Carino: Do you think non-social media companies like Amazon and Google are more trustworthy than social media companies? Or are they more trustworthy people who represent something?
Barkley: I think in general these companies, for most Americans, the experience of these platforms and services is good. You know, they work as they should, helping to provide positive benefits in their daily lives. And I think that’s something I’ve been struggling with, you know, maybe [when] Using a social media company, it’s a little bit more obvious to me what the benefits are. I can see family and friends and stay connected and watch fun videos. But when I use Amazon for example, I’m there to shop, I’m there to find something useful. For example, I trust them with my credit card information. And one of the benefits I get from their service is more clearly a one-on-one relationship, as opposed to a social media company, which can be another aspect.
McCarthy Carino: So this matter of speech was very important. And these forums, social media platforms, modest content, as well as what you asked for was important. What did you find about people’s feelings about this issue?
Barkley: Incredibly, people think social media companies are justified in removing users who violate the rules, removing content they deem to be a risk to public health and safety, even removing elected officials who are disruptive or violate the rules. And these numbers range from 70% to 60%. So it was an amazing support. And you know our survey found 86% of Americans overwhelmingly support free speech, and respondents to our poll said free speech provides positive benefits to society.
McCarthy Carino: If you give some of these positive responses, how do you reconcile your deep insecurities? What is behind this contradiction?
Barkley: I think it comes back to the levels of political will and activism here. You know, the contradiction is with those who have very little political activity. So in other words, most politically active or divisive social media companies are concerned about whether or not it’s appropriate to remove content, just like the disagreement and approval numbers. Although less politically motivated, 6% disagreed with its approval and rejected the content, and just 45% agreed it was justified.
McCarthy Carino: Now, most agree that important political conversations take place on social media platforms, which is how they are often framed as public. But you said the majority didn’t participate, right?
Barkley: that’s right. Yes, we find this question and its results fascinating. Thus, 61% of respondents agreed that important public policy discussions take place primarily on social media, but 24% actually use it for this purpose. This probably comes down to everyday usage situations. You know, getting into political discussions or debates on social media that a lot of people aren’t getting into. And you know, that’s why my colleagues Chris Koopman and Will Reinhart call the social media coliseum, not the public square like the Colosseum in ancient Rome. People directly observe these conflicts and disagreements but are not participating themselves. They are very picky as a spectator sport.
You can find the latest CGO poll and past poll results here. Some of these results reflect an annual poll by Axios and Harris Poll in May that shows social media companies generate less trust than more “hardware”-focused tech companies like Apple, Samsung and Sony.
Taylor Barclay noted in a CGO poll that partisan identification is an important factor with conservatives distrusting most platforms less than liberals, but there was one tech company that narrowly crossed partisan lines — Zoom.
Taylor speculated that it might be because of the critical role it plays in connecting people during shutdowns, not to mention, it’s still very new.
Another relatively well-trusted service in the poll was Slack, a messaging program used mostly by office workers — even here in the marketplace. Less than 20% of respondents said they don’t trust Slack.
But it turns out that the masses don’t know what it is.
And if you’re one of those people, well… consider yourself lucky.
[ad_2]
Source link
