It appears that the bipartisan criticism of social media giants on Capitol Hill is indeed a case of representative government in action.
According to a new poll from NBC and the Wall Street Journal, "a whopping" 82% said social media sites do more to waste people's time than use that time well (15%)."
Related" Demand Progress Pushes for Break-Up of Facebook
And in a finding that should be troubling to Facebook and Google and others as legislators decide whether and how to regulate the edge, almost three quarters (74%) said that social media company collection of their personal data for targeted advertising is "not an acceptable trade-off for free or lower cost services."
The poll also found that a majority of respondents (61%) said social media "does more to spread unfair attacks and rumors" about public figures and corporations" than it does to "hold those public figures and corporations accountable" (32%).
When asked about Facebook, which has been a poster company for suspect sharing of personal information--most notably due to the Cambridge Analytica scandal--60% said they don't trust the company "at all" to protect their personal information. A mere 6% said they trust it "quite a bit or a lot."
By contrast, 37% said they don't trust Google to protect their info and only 28% said they didn't trust Amazon to protect it. Only 35% said they thought the government protected it.
That is the bad news for the edge. The good news is that 69% still say they use social media at least once a day.
There is no consensus on breaking up Big Tech, as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has pledgedif she gets to the White House and ranking House Energy & Commerce Committee member Greg Walden (R-Ore.) has said is worth discussing.
When asked if the government should break up the largest edge providers--Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google, 47% said yes, 50% no, which is essentially a tie given the margin of error.
The phone poll of 1,000 adults was conducted March 23-27. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
