Gallup poll shows decline in Republicans' confidence in Big Tech, big business

Gallup polling indicates that Republicans' trust in Big Tech companies and big businesses has declined significantly since last year.

While more than a third (35%) of Republicans in 2020 had "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in Big Tech companies, that percentage plummeted to just 17%, according to 2021 polling.

The proportion of Republicans who had "some" confidence in Big Tech companies fell from 42% in 2020 to 35% in 2021.

The percentage of Republicans with little or no confidence in Big Tech spiked from 23% in 2020 to 46% in 2021.

Similarly, in 2020 just under a third (32%) of Republicans expressed significant confidence in big business, but that figure dropped to 20% in 2021. Those with some confidence fell from 49% in 2020 to 41% in 2021.

And the polling indicated that while 19% of Republicans had little or no confidence in big business in 2020, a much larger 37% felt that way in 2021.

In the Gallup poll about people's confidence in various institutions a response of "none" conveying no confidence at all was a volunteered response.

"For results based on the sample of 310 Republicans, the margin of sampling error is plus or minus 7 percentage points at the 95% confidence level," according to Gallup.

Some people have been critical of social media giants Twitter and Facebook for their moves to engage in censorship on their platforms.

Both companies deplatformed former President Donald Trump earlier this year in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol breach.

Facebook referred its move to its independent Oversight Board which upheld the suspension but said that "it was not appropriate for Facebook to impose the indeterminate and standardless penalty of indefinite suspension."

Facebook later announced that the suspension of Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts would last for 2 years effective from the date of the original suspension in January 2021 and at that point the situation will be evaluated.

"If we determine that there is still a serious risk to public safety, we will extend the restriction for a set period of time and continue to re-evaluate until that risk has receded," the company said. "When the suspension is eventually lifted, there will be a strict set of rapidly escalating sanctions that will be triggered if Mr. Trump commits further violations in future, up to and including permanent removal of his pages and accounts."