More than half of Americans polled think that the Russian allegations against the former campaign manager of President Donald Trump are a serious issue, according to a poll published by Axios.
Further, 54 percent of those surveyed take seriously allegations that Russia used social media to target groups of Americans, and believe investigations should take place, according to the survey.
The poll preceded Monday's news that former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was charged with conspiracy against the United States.
The survey results, according to Axios:
- 51 percent say the allegations are a serious issue.
- 49 percent of Independents call it a serious issue.
- 51 percent say social media does more harm to democracy than good.
- 45 percent say social media helps democracy.
Further, there is very little trust across the spectrum in technology or the federal government to prevent foreign governments' influence off social media:
- Just 17 percent trust tech companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter.
- Fewer, however, trust the government to do it - 15 percent.
- 43 percent trust neither tech nor the federal government.
- 20 percent trust both.
The poll surveyed 5,474 adults in an online survey conducted by SurveyMonkey Oct. 23-26, and has a modeled error margin of 2 percentage points.
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