Exclusive poll: Americans support removing troubling tweets
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Elon Musk is likely to find out that there's not a big market for his campaign for more free speech on Twitter, according to an Ipsos poll shared exclusively with Axios.
The big picture: Most Americans don't have a problem with Twitter or other social media companies removing posts that include misinformation, promote violence or pose a risk to the public, according to the poll.
- They're more likely to oppose the removal of posts that promote political action or contain heated political rhetoric.
By the numbers: 73% of all respondents said they support removing posts that probably have false information, with just 20% saying they oppose removing those posts.
- 83% said they support removing posts that promote violence against particular individuals or groups.
- 79% said they support removing posts that pose a risk to the public.
- Americans are more divided on taking down political posts. Just 47% support removing posts that promote political action, while 40% oppose it.
- And 54% support removing posts that contain heated political rhetoric, with 36% opposed.
Between the lines: The poll also found that most Americans don't have strong opinions about what Musk's deal to buy Twitter will mean to the social media platform — unless they're extremely online.
- Just 39% of all respondents said Musk will improve the quality of discussion on Twitter, while 22% said it would get worse.
- But among self-described heavy Twitter users, 52% said his involvement would improve the quality of discussion, while 29% said it would get worse.
- Likewise, 44% of all respondents said Musk would lead Twitter to allow greater free speech, while 12% said he'd allow less free speech. But among heavy Twitter users, 54% said his involvement would lead to greater free speech, while 21% said it would result in less free speech.
- For non-users, by far the most common response was "don't know." (About four out of 10 said that about both questions.)
Methodology: This Ipsos Poll was conducted April 26-27 from a sample of 1,000 adults age 18 or older, randomly drawn from Ipsos’ online panel, partner online panel sources, and “river” sampling.
- The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll has a credibility interval of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points for all respondents.
