Gen Z trusts YouTube more than any other platform
- More Gen Zers trust YouTube vs. other social platforms, a new Business Insider-YouGov survey found.
- Roughly 59% of Gen Zers ages 18 to 26 view YouTube as somewhat or very trustworthy, the survey says.
Of all the major social media platforms, YouTube reigns supreme with adult Gen Zers, according to a recent survey.
In July, Business Insider, in collaboration with YouGov, surveyed more than 1,800 Americans spanning five generations. More than 600 respondents were part of Gen Z, defined as people born between 1997 and 2012. BI surveyed only those above the age of 18.
One question asked these adult Gen Zers for their perceptions of trustworthiness of several big social media companies.
YouTube came out on top, with 59% of Gen Zers ages 18 to 26 calling it somewhat or very trustworthy. Only 28% of people found it somewhat or very untrustworthy.
Coming in second was Instagram, which proved somewhat divisive: It notched 40% of the Gen Z vote in trustworthiness — but also 45% in untrustworthiness. (Among respondents, 15% said they were undecided.)
The platform that had the biggest share of people who said it was untrustworthy? Facebook, with 60% of adult Gen Zers calling it somewhat or very untrustworthy. Only 28% of Gen Z called it trustworthy.
Following closely behind was TikTok, with 57% of the demographic deeming it untrustworthy. It did slightly better than Facebook on the trustworthy rating, with 30% of Gen Z saying TikTok was somewhat or very trustworthy.
It's not hard to imagine why some of the other platforms on the list ranked below YouTube in trustworthiness.
Facebook has weathered its fair share of controversies, not to mention many Gen Zers simply don't use Facebook to begin with.
Meanwhile X, formerly known as Twitter, has become increasingly controversial since Elon Musk purchased the site in 2022.
And TikTok, considered one of Gen Z's most frequently used platforms, was subject to plenty of scrutiny as lawmakers raised security concerns about TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, which is headquartered in China.