Most U.S. adults see antisemitism as a serious problem in the nation, according to a recent YouGov survey.
Of the 56% who say antisemitism is problematic, 19% feel it is a “very serious” and 37% a “somewhat serious” problem. By comparison, 22% say it is a “minor problem,” 6% that it is “not a problem” and 15% were unsure.
Respondents are more likely to see the problem of antisemitism as located online than in their local communities, with 50% saying it is a very / somewhat serious problem on the internet compared to 24% in their community. Only 6% say antisemitism is “not a problem” online, compared to 28% who feel it isn’t a problem in their community.
The survey also asked, “How much discrimination do you think the following people face in America today?” and presented five groups for respondents to indicate if they felt the group faced “a great deal,” “a fair amount,” “not much” or no discrimination.
Nearly three-in-four (72%) said Muslim people faced a great deal / a fair amount of discrimination, followed by Black people (71%), Jewish people (65%), Christians (44%) and white people (39%).
Only two demographic groups – people who voted for Trump in 2020 (65%) and Republicans (59%) said Christians faced a great deal / fair amount of discrimination in the U.S. Similarly, Trump voters (64%) and Republicans (57%) were the only two groups with a majority who felt that white people faced a great deal / fair amount of discrimination.
While half (50%) of adults said social media companies are biased “in applying the rules for fact checking and censorship,” a majority also approve of them regulating users who post certain content or engage in several types of behavior online.
Most want social media companies to prevent users from harassing others on their site (72%) and to prevent them from posting hate speech or racist content on their site (67%).
Similarly, most want companies to suspend users if they post violent content (77%), post antisemitic content (74%), promote racial division (75%), post hate speech (73%), spread disinformation (65%) or share conspiracy theories or other false information (62%).
The only demographic groups for which there was not majority support for censoring posts that contain conspiracy theories or false information were Republicans (49%) and people who voted for Trump in 2020 (43%). Similarly, only Trump voters in 2020 (42%) did not have a majority say social media users should be suspended for spreading disinformation.
The topline results are available here. The crosstab results are available here. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
Managing editor for news and opinion at Good Faith Media.
