BIAS Abounds! Pew Study Shows Nearly Half of US Adults Get News from Social Media

September 22nd, 2021 3:07 PM

A startlingly large percentage of U.S. adults still get their news from social media — even after a MRC survey showed that Big Tech and Big Media teamed up to steal the 2020 election.

A recent Pew Research Center survey showed that nearly half (48%) of U.S. adults get their news from social media. Twitter, in particular, is a platform infamous for hot takes, witch-hunting mobs and absurd rhetoric, but it's apparently where millions of Americans get their news. “More than half of Twitter user[s] get news on the site regularly,” Pew reported Sept. 20. Similarly staggering numbers are true for other Big Tech platforms: “[A]bout a third of U.S. adults (31%) say they get news regularly on Facebook, while about one-in-five Americans (22%) say they regularly get news on YouTube. Twitter and Instagram are regular news sources for 13% and 11% of Americans, respectively.” 

These numbers of Americans relying on social media for news are not a fluke: “The percentage of Americans who get news regularly from these sites has remained largely unchanged since 2020, though the share who regularly get news on Facebook has declined slightly (36% in 2020 vs. 31% in 2021).”

One particularly grim observation was where the youngest of voters get their news: “Younger adults, those ages 18 to 29, are far more likely to regularly get news on both Snapchat and TikTok than other age groups.”  Some may be troubled when considering that young users are getting their news from a platform infamously associated with the Chinese communist government. Unsurprisingly, the liberal bias of the Big Tech platforms appears to have created a liberal echo chamber, as “No social media site included here has regular news consumers who are more likely to be Republican or lean Republican.”

The fact that social media platforms are both overwhelmingly liberal and a primary source of news for millions is a troublesome combination for America. 

A shocking revelation released by the New York Post on Oct. 14, 2020, cited purported emails from then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s son Hunter. The news outlet reportedly exposed the alleged corrupt dealings of both father and son in Ukraine. 

Facebook and Twitter disabled links to the story in October, mere weeks before the election. The media blackout on the Hunter Biden scandal was a political game changer with dire electoral implications. A post-election poll from the Media Research Center, conducted by McLaughlin & Associates, showed 36 percent of Biden voters were NOT aware of the evidence linking Joe Biden to corrupt financial dealings with China through his son Hunter. Thirteen percent of these voters (or 4.6% of Biden’s total vote) say that had they known these facts, they would not have voted for the former Vice President.

Conservatives are under attack! Contact your local representative and demand that Big Tech provide equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us at the Media Research Center contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.