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Public still mixed on regulating Big Tech

An Axios-SurveyMonkey poll conducted last week shows that the public remains relatively split on how regulation of tech might play out. By a 53-to-43 margin, more people continue to worry that the government won’t go far enough rather than fear it will do too much.

Data: SurveyMonkey poll conducted March 21–23, 2018. Poll Methodology.; Chart: Lazaro Gamio/Axios

However, that's actually a bit narrower than in February when 55% of people worried regulation would not go far enough. Of course, there are a couple ways to look at that:

  • One is that a small number of people have shifted their opinion on the optimal amount of regulation.
  • Perhaps more likely, though, is that the shift reflects the fact that people now expect more regulation, so slightly more people are concerned it will go too far.

Bottom line: In any case, concerns over the government not going far enough are up significantly since November.

Go deeper: Facebook favorability plunges after Cambridge Analytica controversy

Methodology: This new Axios/SurveyMonkey online poll was conducted March 21-23, 2018 among 2,878 adults in the United States. The modeled error estimate for the full sample is 2.5 percentage points. Respondents for this survey were selected from the nearly 3 million people who take surveys on the SurveyMonkey platform each day. Crosstabs available here.

Big Tech backlash