According to a new Pew Research Center poll the percentage of Democratic leaning voters who believe that the government should limit freedom of expression is drastically increasing. The 65% of Democrats who express support for government suppression of “misinformation” is far higher than the 40% who supported the same idea three years ago. The trend for Republican voters is the opposite, though not as pronounced as the shift for Democrats.
Poll indicates increased support for censorship
The debate surrounding misinformation has often been framed as a public safety issue given the controversies surrounding the pandemic and vaccines.
This question is ostensibly related to limiting the spread of blatantly untrue ideas which have the potential to mislead people in dangerous directions.
In reality, the results of the Pew poll indicate that, for a significant percentage of Americans, the issue is more related to which party is in power in Washington D.C.
A majority of Democrats now express a willingness to embrace limited censorship from a government which they did not trust to this extent in 2018.
It can be no coincidence that this large increase in support coincides with the change from a Trump White House to a Biden White House, though respondents would be unlikely to admit as much even if asked.
The fact that there is a corresponding drop in Republican approval over the same span of time indicates that, for some Americans, there is a major partisan slant to the issue which goes beyond the principle of free speech.
Party affiliation determines more responses in 2021
Roughly half of the country is now supportive of the government restricting the spread of misinformation online, according to the poll.
“Misinformation” is not an especially specific term and these respondents likely had any number of differing definitions and concerns in mind when they provided their answers.
Regardless of intentions, blanket approval for limiting “misinformation” indicates a much higher degree of willingness to see any kind of government censorship than was evident only three years ago.
Intense polarization has undoubtedly played an enormous role in eroding opposition to censorship. Democrats widely supported efforts to stop the spread of skepticism about the 2020 election results.
The more pronounced demographic differences in support for the issue which existed in 2018 have largely shrunk in the 2021 poll results, leaving political affiliation to be by far the most prominent distinction.
Increasing numbers of Democrats are evidently willing to see a more active form of government censorship. Where the line is to be drawn for these respondents is unclear.
