Regulate Big Tech? That’s not a top priority for most voters

One of Senator Elizabeth Warren’s (D-MA) top agenda items should she be elected president of the United States is to regulate big tech companies and break up the likes of Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Apple on antitrust grounds. However, she may want to focus her campaign on student loan forgiveness, or universal childcare, or any of her seemingly endless supply of policy plans, because a new survey reveals that regulating Big Tech just isn’t that big of a deal for American voters (yet).

A new poll of registered voters from Morning Consult and Politico found that just 17% think tech regulation should be a top priority for Congress, by far the lowest out of all the issues that respondents were asked to prioritize.

By comparison, 54% said healthcare reform should be a top priority, 38% said climate change, 30% chose income inequality as a top priority, and 28% said beginning impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump should be Congress’s top priority. Issues like gun control, immigration reform, the deficit, and infrastructure were all prioritized over tech regulation.

Tech regulation just isn’t that much of a life-or-death priority compared to, say, fighting climate change, trying to keep your health insurance, or keeping guns out of the hands of the next active shooter. That said, 39% of respondents said regulating tech was “an important, but lower priority,” so voters are at least paying attention, and Warren might want to keep that plan in her back pocket.