{"id":9053,"date":"2021-05-05T06:59:51","date_gmt":"2021-05-05T11:59:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/americans-divided-on-whether-trump-should-be-permanently-banned-from-social-media\/"},"modified":"2025-04-23T23:56:58","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T03:56:58","slug":"americans-divided-on-whether-trump-should-be-permanently-banned-from-social-media","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2021\/05\/05\/americans-divided-on-whether-trump-should-be-permanently-banned-from-social-media\/","title":{"rendered":"Americans divided on whether Trump should be permanently banned from social media"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Americans are split on whether former President Donald Trump should be barred from social media. Some 49% of U.S. adults say Trump\u2019s accounts should be permanently banned from social media, while half say they should not be. But views are deeply divided along partisan lines, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The survey, fielded April 12 to 18, was conducted before Facebook\u2019s independent oversight board upheld for now <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/05\/05\/technology\/facebook-trump-ban-upheld.html\">the suspension of Trump\u2019s account<\/a> that was instituted in the wake of the violent riots at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Several social media companies <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/platforms-social-media-ban-restrict-trump-d9e44f3c-8366-4ba9-a8a1-7f3114f920f1.html\">acted against Trump<\/a> after the attack, claiming he violated their terms of use and that his rhetoric could result in more violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n<div style=\"border-width:1px;padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--20);padding-left:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30);padding-right:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30);padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--20);--block-gap: inherit\" class=\"is-style-alternate wp-block-prc-block-collapsible has-background has-ui-beige-very-light-background-color has-border-color has-ui-beige-dark-border-color\" id=\"how-we-did-this\" data-wp-interactive=\"{&quot;namespace&quot;:&quot;prc-block\\\/collapsible&quot;}\" data-wp-context=\"{&quot;collapsibleId&quot;:&quot;how-we-did-this&quot;,&quot;isOpen&quot;:false}\" data-wp-class--is-open=\"context.isOpen\" data-wp-init--scroll-into-view=\"callbacks.onInitScrollIntoView\"><div class=\"wp-block-prc-block-collapsible__title\" data-wp-on--click=\"actions.onClick\"><div>How we did this<\/div><button class=\"wp-block-prc-block-collapsible__icon\"><span data-wp-bind--hidden=\"context.isOpen\"><i class=\"icon icon-library__light icon__circle-plus\"><svg style=\"width: 1em; height: 1em;\"><use xlink:href=\"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/plugins\/prc-icon-library\/build\/icons\/sprites\/light.svg#circle-plus\"><\/use><\/svg><\/i><\/span><span data-wp-bind--hidden=\"!context.isOpen\" hidden><i class=\"icon icon-library__light icon__circle-minus\"><svg style=\"width: 1em; height: 1em;\"><use xlink:href=\"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/plugins\/prc-icon-library\/build\/icons\/sprites\/light.svg#circle-minus\"><\/use><\/svg><\/i><\/span><\/button><\/div><div class=\"wp-block-prc-block-collapsible__content\">\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pew Research Center has long studied Americans\u2019 views of the influence that social media companies have on political discourse. Following several companies\u2019 decisions to ban former President Donald Trump after the riots at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, the Center asked Americans about their views on permanently banning Trump from social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For this analysis, we surveyed 4,623 U.S. adults from April 12 to 18, 2021. Everyone who took part is a member of the Center\u2019s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the <a href=\"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/methods\/u-s-survey-research\/american-trends-panel\/\">ATP\u2019s methodology<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here are <a href=\"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Trump_social_media_ban_METHODS_TOPLINE_for_release.pdf\">the questions, responses and methodology<\/a> used for this analysis.<\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-420-wide\"><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-15110\" href=\"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2021\/05\/05\/americans-divided-on-whether-trump-should-be-permanently-banned-from-social-media\/ft_2021-05-05_trumpban_01a-png\/\"><img data-dominant-color=\"e8e3e2\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #e8e3e2;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  srcset=\"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/05\/ft_2021.05.05_trumpban_01a.png?resize=480,526 480w, https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/05\/ft_2021.05.05_trumpban_01a.png?resize=782,856 782w, https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/05\/ft_2021.05.05_trumpban_01a.png?resize=840,920 840w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 480px, (max-width: 782px) 782px, 640px\" height=\"460\" width=\"420\" src=\"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/05\/ft_2021.05.05_trumpban_01a.png?w=420\" alt=\"Strong partisan divide in Americans\u2019 views of permanently banning Trump from social media\" class=\"wp-image-15110 not-transparent\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Republicans and Democrats hold deeply contrasting views of a lifetime ban for Trump. Just 11% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say Trump\u2019s accounts should be permanently banned from social media, while 88% say they should not be. By comparison, 81% of Democrats and Democratic leaners say his accounts should be banned permanently. Roughly one-in-five Democrats (18%) do not support this type of ban on Trump\u2019s accounts.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While most Republicans do not support permanently barring Trump from social media, there are some ideological differences within the party. More than nine-in-ten conservative Republicans (95%) believe Trump\u2019s accounts should not be permanently banned from social media, but that share is lower among moderate and liberal Republicans (77%). Among Democrats, liberals (85%) are somewhat more likely than conservatives and moderates (78%) to favor a permanent ban, though large majorities in both ideological groups favor it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Center\u2019s new poll follows a <a href=\"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2021\/01\/27\/republicans-democrats-at-odds-over-social-media-companies-banning-trump\/\">January survey<\/a> that gauged public reactions to the initial bans that social media companies imposed on Trump after the Capitol riots. In that survey, 58% of adults said they thought social media companies\u2019 decisions to ban Trump\u2019s accounts in the wake of the riots were the right thing to do, while 41% believed those decisions were the wrong thing to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And then \u2013 just like today \u2013 most Republicans (78%) said social media companies\u2019 decisions to ban Trump\u2019s accounts following the riots were the wrong thing to do, while a vast majority of Democrats (89%) supported these decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Facebook <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/journalismproject\/facebook-oversight-board-for-content-decisions-overview\">created its oversight board in 2019<\/a> to be the final arbiter of important, controversial content decisions made by the platform. It began making decisions <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oversightboard.com\/news\/165523235084273-announcing-the-oversight-board-s-first-case-decisions\/\">earlier this year<\/a>. The board recently ordered Facebook to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/facebook-oversight-board-india-narendra-modi-sikhs\/\">reinstate a post<\/a> that accused Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi of participating in efforts to kill the country\u2019s Sikh religious minority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Note: Here are <a href=\"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Trump_social_media_ban_METHODS_TOPLINE_for_release.pdf\">the questions, responses and methodology<\/a> used for this analysis.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some 49% of U.S. adults say Donald Trump\u2019s accounts should be permanently banned from social media, while half say they should not be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":584,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":"","sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2021-05-05T14:11:10Z","apple_news_api_id":"84da66c3-ab3b-4e4e-8b29-607c354c528d","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2021-05-07T20:43:40Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AhNpmw6s7Tk6LKWB8NUxSjQ","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"apple_news_api_pending":"1713063423","relatedPosts":[],"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0},"categories":[68,103,274,307,283],"bylines":[940],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[526,520],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-9053","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","category-donald-trump","category-free-speech-press","category-politics-online","category-social-media","category-tech-companies-1","bylines-monica-anderson","formats-short-read","regions-countries-united-states","research-teams-internet","research-teams-politics"],"label":"Short 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