☀️ Happy Thursday! The Briefing is your guide to the world of news and information. Sign up here!
In today’s email:
- Featured story: Brazil blocks X
- New from Pew Research Center: Support for U.S. TikTok ban continues to decline
- In other news: U.S. sanctions Russia for attempts to manipulate election
- Looking ahead: California governor scraps bill to support local journalism, announces partnership with Google instead
- Chart of the week: Israelis say certain war-related content should not be allowed on social media
🔥 Top story
Brazil has suspended X (formerly Twitter) nationwide after the social media platform missed a deadline to name a legal representative in the country. The decision, which comes amid a longer debate over misinformation and free speech on X, was upheld by a Brazilian Supreme Court panel on Monday.
The vast majority of Brazilians (86%) said in a 2023 survey that they use social media sites, including 97% of those ages 18 to 39. But according to the survey, which was conducted in 2023 before Musk rebranded Twitter as X, Twitter was less popular in Brazil than other social media platforms. Just 22% of Brazilians said they used Twitter that year.
🚨 New from Pew Research Center
As public support for a TikTok ban continues to decline, many U.S. adults are skeptical or unsure such a ban will happen, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.
The share of Americans who support the U.S. government banning TikTok has fallen to 32% today, down from 38% in fall 2023. Support for a ban was much higher in March 2023 (50%).
Meanwhile, 28% of Americans now oppose a ban, up from 22% in March 2023. And the share who say they are uncertain whether the government should ban the platform is now 39%, up from 28% in March 2023. Half of Americans think it’s very or somewhat unlikely that TikTok will be banned in the U.S.
These findings come as TikTok’s fate in the country remains unclear. President Joe Biden signed a bill in April that requires ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, to sell it or face a ban in the U.S. Challenges to this law will be heard in a U.S. appeals court later this month.
Read the full analysis of Americans’ views of a potential U.S. TikTok ban here.
📌 In other news
- U.S. sanctions Russia for attempts to manipulate election
- Covert Chinese operation uses social media to influence U.S. voters
- A look at liberal falsehoods ahead of the 2024 election
- A Black nonprofit newsroom in Kansas City pushes the boundaries of journalism
- Media veterans launch new LGBTQ-focused outlet Uncloseted Media
- CNN brings back media analyst Brian Stelter
- Russia sentences journalist to prison for Ukraine war reporting
📅 Looking ahead
California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently announced a $250 million partnership with Google to help fund local newsrooms. The deal replaces a proposed bill that would require a fee from Big Tech companies to support journalism. Some California reporters are questioning the new agreement, which still needs to be approved by the state legislature.
In our 2024 survey on Americans’ experiences with local news, we found that a large majority of Americans (85%) say local news outlets are at least somewhat important to the well-being of their local community. This includes 44% who say local journalism is extremely or very important to their community.
At the same time, a relatively small share of Americans (15%) say they have paid for local news in the last year. And many seem unaware of the major financial challenges facing local news: 63% say they think their local news outlets are doing very or somewhat well financially.
📊 Chart of the week
This week’s chart is from a recent analysis of a Pew Research Center survey of Israelis conducted earlier this year. Many Israelis believe that posting certain kinds of content related to the Israel-Hamas war on social media should not be allowed. Not only do about nine-in-ten Israeli adults oppose posts that call for violence or show support for Hamas, but 59% say posts that express sympathy for civilians in Gaza should not be allowed.
There are large differences between Arab and Jewish Israelis on some of these questions, as well as differences by political ideology.
👋 That’s all for this week.
The Briefing is compiled by Pew Research Center staff, including Naomi Forman-Katz, Jacob Liedke, Sarah Naseer, Christopher St. Aubin, Luxuan Wang and Emily Tomasik. It is edited by Katerina Eva Matsa, Michael Lipka and Mark Jurkowitz, and copy edited by Rebecca Leppert.
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