Americans’ Use of Media and Technology, and their views on Online Safety, Privacy, Content Moderation, and Independent News

On behalf of Free Press, the African American Research Collaborative (AARC) and BSP Research (BSP) completed a survey of 3,000 American adults to better understand how Americans use media and technology to gain information, how they deal with misinformation and safety online, what privacy concerns they have about online platforms, what they believe are appropriate roles in content moderation, and whether they perceive a need for more independent news sources in the current media and political environment. Key findings included:

• More than half of respondents spend 3 or more hours a day on their phone, with major time spent perusing Facebook, news, entertaining videos on YouTube, and answering work emails, texting, and making phone calls.
• Americans are concerned that what they see online can be false or intended to confuse. They have become fact checkers and support legislation to educate kids to fact check online content.
• Americans have significant privacy concerns, with two thirds concerned that: tech companies or the government are tracking their online actions; their search history is being used to target personalized ads; and tech companies might sell their personal information for marketing purposes.
• Majorities of Americans believe social media companies should be able to moderate against hateful or racist speech, even when that speech is part of a political ad.