Over Half of Adults in US Want More Government Regulation of Big Tech Companies - Poll

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - A majority of adults in the United States want more government control of large technology companies and more than two-thirds believe that big tech firms have too much influence over the economy, a PEW Research Center poll said on Tuesday.

“Some 56 percent of Americans think major technology companies should be regulated more than they are now, and 68% believe these firms have too much power and influence in the economy,” a press release explaining the poll said.

The latest survey represents a statistically significant increase of those who say there should be more regulation, up from 47 percent in June 2020, the release said.

Increases in support for more regulation were recorded across most of the political spectrum, particularly among liberal Democrats, since PEW last asked the question in June 2020, the release added.

The poll comes amid growing calls by some lawmakers that big technology firms such as Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon and others be broken up into smaller companies - a strategy deployed against multiple US conglomerates such as Standard Oil in the early 20th century.

The survey was conducted April 12-18 from 4,623 panelists in a nationally representative sample of randomly selected US adults. The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points, according to the release.