People want platforms, not governments, to be responsible for moderating content

Summary

What should be done about problematic online content? Whether we are talking about hateful online comments, extreme political rhetoric or false information about elections, it’s widely recognised that there are problems which need addressing when it comes to content on online platforms. But nobody has a clear answer to how to deal with them. In this article, we explore public opinion about these issues, looking at two areas: First, people’s thoughts about whether the platforms themselves should be responsible for their own content policies or whether governments should intervene (who should be responsible for content policies online?) Second, people’s thoughts about whether or not platforms should be responsible for false information posted by users (who should be responsible for false or misleading content posted online?) Public opinion on these issues matters because the users of online platforms are the ones impacted by low-quality, misleading, or even violent content. This is why we conducted a study in 2024, in collaboration with the Knight Foundation, to understand public attitudes toward regulating the digital public sphere. We asked representative samples of survey respondents in eight countries – the US, UK, Germany, Brazil, Spain, Argentina, Japan, and South Korea – their opinions on the issues of content moderation and false information posted online. The consistent and clear finding across countries and demographic groups is that people do not favour government intervention in the content policies of online platforms. Instead, the majority of people think responsibility should be in the hands of the companies themselves. At the same time, there is a strong feeling that online platforms, while being left to self-regulate, should do more to combat false information posted by users. 1. Who should be responsible for content policies on online platforms? The first broad area of policy debate online we will look at is content moderation policies. We asked surv...