Three-quarters of Americans think Facebook is making U.S. society worse and nearly half say they know someone who was led to believe a conspiracy theory due to content on the social media platform, a CNN poll conducted by SSRS said Wednesday.
The belief that Facebook harms society, 76% to 11%, holds firm even among regular users, at 70% to 14%, although there is a bit of a split over whether the website itself is to blame for society’s ills.
Among those who think it is problem, 55% say the cause is the way people use the platform while 45% believe it is due to how Facebook is run.
The CNN poll found 49% of Americans were persuaded to believe a conspiracy theory from Facebook, though the trend varied with age. About six in 10 adults under 35 said they knew someone who picked up a conspiracy theory on the platform versus 35% of those over 65.
Facebook is facing intense scrutiny from Congress over claims that its platform divides Americans and drives the spread of bogus information.
The company recently announced it would change its name to Meta as part of an ambitious overhaul.
More than half of Americans say the federal government should increase its regulation of the platform while 11% said the government should decrease regulation, and 35% said it shouldn’t change.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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