Social media sentiment: an erosion of consumer trust

We surveyed 1,000 working-age consumers in the US and UK to understand if sentiment towards social media platforms is changing – especially now that President Trump is seeking closer ties with tech billionaires (even appointing X owner Elon Musk to advise on federal spending cuts).

We also wanted to explore if social media is becoming less brand-friendly in light of these changes, and following a raft of brands, including Apple, IBM, Disney, Unilever and Mars, pulling their ads from X. 

Quick summary

• 41% of US consumers do not trust information on social media platforms, with an additional 39% finding it only “somewhat” trustworthy.
• TikTok is viewed as the least trustworthy platform by 21% of consumers, followed by Facebook at 20% and X at 17%.
• 76% of Americans believe social media companies should be held accountable for the content shared on their platforms; 40% advocate for complete responsibility, while 36% support limited responsibility.
• 32% of Americans think the current laws regulating social media are too lenient, and 9% think they’re too strict.
• Brands such as Apple, IBM, Disney, Unilever, and Mars have withdrawn advertisements from platforms like X due to trust issues.

Consumers believe social media companies should be held accountable

Meta announced in January that third-party fact-checking will be replaced on Facebook, Instagram and Threads by “Community Notes”. Similar to the system used by X, it allows users to add context to posts that may be misleading. According to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, this will encourage free speech at the same time as reducing moderation errors.

However, most Americans believe it’s the tech companies that should shoulder the burden of preventing misinformation, not the users. Just over 76% say social media companies should be held accountable for the content shared on their platforms although opinion is split on their level of responsibility. While 40% think they should bear complete responsibility, 36% think it should be to a limited extent [view full survey].

Interestingly, men are more likely to believe that tech companies should bear complete responsibility (45% versus 37% of women), while women think they should have partial responsibility (40% versus 33% of men). 

In the UK, where Meta will retain fact-checkers for the time being, 87% of consumers believe social media platforms should be responsible for the content that is shared, with 54% thinking this should mean complete responsibility [view full survey]. 

Public support for social media legislation

Current US law, for the most part, allows for self-regulation of social media platforms, and provides them with immunity from liability for user-generated content. But our data shows there is a desire among consumers for tighter government control over tech companies. 

Only 9% of Americans believe the current laws regulating social media are too strict. On the contrary, 32% think they are too lenient. A third say the existing laws are balanced, while 27% are not familiar with them. 

The call for greater regulation comes from both male and female consumers, with an equal amount believing the law is too lenient. But women are significantly more likely to say they are not familiar with the laws surrounding social media (34% versus 19% of men). 

In the UK, the Online Safety Bill is currently under consideration. The bill seeks to impose a duty of care on social media companies to protect users from harmful content. It seems likely to be supported by consumers, 43% of whom think existing laws are too lenient, and just 7% say they’re too strict. 

Some social media platforms deemed more untrustworthy than others 

Social media has a trust problem: 41% of US consumers say they don’t trust the information they see on social platforms, while a further 39% think information found on social media is only “somewhat” trustworthy. 

But some platforms are considered more untrustworthy than others. TikTok has the worst reputation, with 21% voting it the least trustworthy platform. Facebook comes in second place, with 20% of the vote, while X is third, with 17%. 

Truth Social – the platform launched by Donald Trump in 2022 as an alternative to Twitter – also ranks as one of the least trustworthy. While only 5% of respondents said they had used Truth Social regularly in the month of the survey, 9% named the platform as being untrustworthy. 

British consumers also believe TikTok, X and Facebook are the top three least trustworthy social media platforms, but X and TikTok are ranked as worse than Facebook (both 24% versus 21%). Elon Musk’s recent use of X to weigh in on UK politics may have contributed to UK consumers’ belief that X is untrustworthy. He accused Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer of being “deeply complicit in the mass rapes in exchange for votes”. In response, Sir Keir claimed Musk was “spreading lies and misinformation.”

Is social media still a good place for brands? 

“The Great Xodus”, as it’s been termed, has seen a growing number of brands leave X due to concern that their posts could be viewed next to controversial content, such as hate speech or conspiracy theories. 

The issue of unmoderated content on social media looks set to only get worse, creating a risky environment for brands. But does the risk of being present on these platforms outweigh the risk of not being present on them?

Social media remains one of the most reliable places to reach consumers, with 45% using it several times a day and a further third using it at least once a day. And, in general, users see it as a positive factor in their lives: 48% feel positively about social media, while only 13% feel negatively.

Understanding what connotations consumers have about different platforms can help brands to select the right ones for them. For example, Facebook is most associated with being a place to connect with others (38%), while Instagram is thought of as being somewhere to share and watch content (27%), and Reddit is for learning (15%).

In terms of social media’s power to directly drive sales for brands, 25% of consumers say they’ll buy a product through a social media site in the next three months, while a further 25% might make a purchase. Facebook is the platform most associated with shopping (16%), followed by TikTok (12%) and Instagram (10%). 

Following your consumers’ lead

Ultimately, the best advice for brands who are unsure which social media platforms they should stick with, is to follow their consumers’ lead. If your audience is ditching a platform, then why should you waste valuable marketing budget there?

We asked consumers which social media platform they most associated with being the one “for me”, and the results differ wildly depending on things like age and gender. But there are myriad other factors that will affect platform preference, and the only way to know for sure where to reach your customers is to ask them. 

Regularly surveying your customers (and wider consumer base) about their social media habits can help you to spend your resources wisely – and quickly pinpoint if your association with a platform is doing you more harm than good.