A clear majority of Americans (62%) say social-media giants like Facebook have too much control over the news people see on their platforms.
That’s according to Pew Research Center, which included responses from about 5,100 U.S. adults, in July.
Further, a majority of Americans (55%) say the role social-media companies play in delivering the news on their platforms results in a worse mix of news.
By contrast, only a small share of Americans (15%) say the efforts of social-media giants has resulted in a better mix of news.
On average, Republicans tend to be more negative than Democrats regarding the control that social-media companies have over the news.
Indeed, three-quarters of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say social-media companies have too much control over the mix of news that people see, compared with about half (53%) of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents.
Additionally, more Republicans (66%) than Democrats (49%) also say these efforts result in a poor mix of news for users.
Spanning political preferences, about eight in 10 U.S. adults say social-media sites treat some news organizations differently than others, while only 16% believe that all news organizations are treated the same.
Among U.S. adults who say socia- media companies treat some news organizations differently than others, 88% say they favor those that produce attention-grabbing articles.
Also, about half of U.S. adults say that one-sided news (53%) and inaccurate news (51%) are major problems when it comes to news on social media.
Fewer say that censorship of the news (35%) or news organizations or personalities being banned (24%) are very big problems.