The Freedom Forum Institute (FFI) recently released their annual “State of the First Amendment” (SOFA) survey, and the results are troubling.
On Friday, The Daily Wire reported that according to the SOFA survey, which has been conducted every year since 1997, 40% of Americans couldn’t name a single right guaranteed by the First Amendment. Only one respondent could name all five rights.
However, that’s not the only bad news from the survey. Out of the 1,009 adults surveyed, 48% “strongly agree” or “somewhat agree” that the government should “require social media sites to monitor and remove objectionable content.” A combined 49% “strongly disagree” or “somewhat disagree.”
Interestingly, those who were able to name more rights guaranteed by the First Amendment were less likely to agree that the government become involved in social media.
According to FFI: “We can conclude that those who are more familiar with the specific content of the First Amendment are less likely to agree with statements that present hypothetical restrictions.”
FFI has a table that shows the correlation:
As The Daily Wire reported on Friday, there is a silver lining to the disturbing results of this survey. It appears that the more educated an individual is about our founding text, the less likely they are to see the government as the solution to alleged problems in the private sector.
