POLL: Wealthy, Democrats most likely to favour censored speech online

AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky

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Free speech is under attack in the United States, and more and more Americans are less alarmed, and more supportive of the measure to censor their political opponents — particularly Democrats.

A Rasmussen poll on Monday found that slightly over half of all Americans want free speech on social media, while the remainder wants to censor and moderate speech on the Internet.

The majority of those calling for speech restrictions are Democrats, the poll found.

Fifty-one percent (51%) of American adults believe that social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter must allow free speech without interference, Rasmussen reported. The figure is down from 61% in 2018.

The survey question went as followed:

“Which is better – for the owners of social media like Facebook and Twitter to regulate what is posted to make sure some people are not offended or to allow free speech without interference?”

According to the survey's findings, an increasing number of Americans believe that social media companies need to clamp down on free speech and “regulate what is posted to make sure some people are not offended” today, compared to 2018.

Thirty-five percent (35%) now think it’s better for social media companies to regulate what is posted to make sure some people are not offended, up from 23% in 2018.

The survey was gathered the opinion of 1,000 American adults and was conducted from January 4 to January 5, 2022 by Rasmussen Reports, which says that there is a margin of sampling error of three percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.

The alarming findings of the poll show that a desire for censorship has increased among Americans by over double in only four years.

Indeed, a further extrapolation of the details shows that wealthier Americans expressed a positive preference for censorship, while those earning minimum wages are largely opposed to censorship.

Rasmussen reports that 52% of those earning more than $200,000 support censorship compared to 27% of those earning less than $30,000.

Alarmingly, 44% of government employees polled said they want to restrict speech online, making them the predominant group in favour of censorship, stating that they did not support “free speech without interference.”