Americans are afraid to talk about the NSA on social media, according to a new survey published by the Pew Research Center. Since Edward Snowden leaked thousands of documents detailing the agency's massive surveillance program on U.S. citizens' digital and wireless communications, Americans say they are far more willing to criticize the NSA in face-to-face discussions compared to online.
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Pew surveyed over 1,800 Americans last summer (when the leaks were just beginning) about their willingness to discuss Snowden and the NSA's activities. While 86 percent of respondents said they would talk about the surveillance in person, only 42 percent of Facebook and Twitter users said they were comfortable posting about the revelations.
It might appear that Americans are censoring themselves online because they now know the government is collecting our digital information. Pew also claims it shows evidence that old ways of communications are still alive.
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"We hear that there are all these new forums of discussion now, so people must be expressing themselves much more than in the past. But that's not what the data shows," said Dr. Keith N. Hampton, an associate professor at Rutgers University's School of Communication & Information and a researcher on the project, to The Wall Street Journal. "It might be different with the Kardashians, but this is about important public affairs issues."
Even still, the apparent "spiral of silence" is clear from the results.