{"id":574113,"date":"2026-10-01T09:54:27","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T13:54:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/?p=574113"},"modified":"2026-10-01T09:54:27","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T13:54:27","slug":"across-the-globe-people-increasingly-say-social-media-is-harming-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/global\/2026\/10\/01\/across-the-globe-people-increasingly-say-social-media-is-harming-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"Across the Globe, People Increasingly Say Social Media Is Harming Democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Most think social media leads to manipulation and division, but they also say it informs people and gives them a voice in politics<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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A phone displays election result predictions during the second round of the 2024 French legislative elections on July 7, 2024. (Pat Batard\/Hans Lucas\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
About this research<\/summary>\n

This Pew Research Center report looks at views of how social media has impacted democracy in 37 countries, as well as social media use by platform in each place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why did we do this?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Pew Research Center does research to help the public, media and decision-makers understand important topics. We study how people around the world feel about their democracies and the impact of social media and other emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI)<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learn more about Pew Research Center<\/a> and our international surveys<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did we do this?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We surveyed 42,151 people across 36 countries: Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the West Bank and East Jerusalem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interviews were conducted from Feb. 8 to May 13, 2026. We designed the surveys so we could talk about the views of the adult population in each country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For this report, data from the United States comes from two surveys. We surveyed 3,507 U.S. adults from March 23 to 29, 2026. Everyone who took part in this survey is a member of the Center\u2019s American Trends Panel<\/a>. Additionally, we surveyed 5,511 U.S. adults from Jan. 30 to June 18, 2026 as part of the National Public Opinion Reference Survey (NPORS)<\/a>. These surveys represent the views of the full U.S. adult population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are the survey questions used<\/a> for this report, along with responses, and the survey methodology<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

As social media platforms have become an important part of the information environment around the world, the view that social media is harming democracy has become more common.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Shares who see social media as a bad thing for democracy have grown over the last few years <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
% who say social media has been more of a __ for democracy in their country<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\n
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* This question was first asked in Indonesia in 2023.
Note: Those who did not answer are not shown. Includes surveyed countries with the 12 largest statistically significant changes in the share who say \u2018Bad thing\u2019 since last asked. Over time, we have changed how we conduct surveys (by phone or face-to-face) in Hungary and Poland. Refer to topline for more information.<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
Source: Spring 2026 Global Attitudes Survey.
“Across the Globe, People Increasingly Say Social Media Is Harming Democracy”<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
PEW RESEARCH CENTER<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t
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Share this chart<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t