Data: Axios/Ipsos survey; Note: Numbers may not add up to 100% due to rounding; Diagram: Kavya Beheraj/Axios
Elon Musk is likely to find that there isn’t a big market for his free speech campaign on Twitter, according to an Ipsos poll made available exclusively to Axios.
The big picture: According to the survey, most Americans are comfortable with Twitter or other social media companies removing posts that contain misinformation, encourage violence, or pose a risk to the public.
- They tend to oppose the removal of posts that promote political action or contain heated political rhetoric.
Using the numbers: 73% of all respondents said they support removing posts that are likely to contain incorrect information, and only 20% say they oppose removing these posts.
- 83% said they support the removal of posts that promote violence against specific individuals or groups.
- 79% said they support the removal of posts that pose a risk to the public.
- Americans are more divided when it comes to stepping down from political office. Only 47% support removing posts that promote political action, while 40% oppose it.
- And 54% support removing posts that contain heated political rhetoric, while 36% oppose it.
Between the lines: The poll also found that unless they’re extremely online, most Americans don’t have strong opinions about what Musk’s deal to buy Twitter will mean for the social media platform.
- Just 39% of all respondents said Musk will improve the quality of discussions on Twitter, while 22% said it would get worse.
- But among self-proclaimed heavy Twitter users, 52% said their engagement would improve the quality of the discussion, while 29% said it would get worse.
- Likewise, 44% of all respondents said Musk would make Twitter allow more free speech, while 12% said he would allow less free speech. But among heavy Twitter users, 54% said its involvement would lead to more free speech, while 21% said it would lead to less free speech.
- For non-users, by far the most common response was “don’t know”. (Roughly four out of ten said so to both questions.)
Methodology: This Ipsos survey was conducted on April 26-27 with a sample of 1,000 adults 18 years and older, randomly drawn from the Ipsos online panel, partner online panel sources and “flow” samples were drawn.
- The precision of Ipsos online surveys is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the survey has a confidence interval of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points for all respondents.