A majority of U.S. adults (56%) say that those who call out others on social media for posts that might be considered offensive are mainly holding people accountable for their actions. A smaller share (40%) say those who do this are more likely to punish people who didn’t deserve it.

Pew Research Center conducted this study to better understand how Americans feel about calling people out on social media.

For this analysis, we surveyed 3,554 U.S. adults from Aug. 4 to 10, 2025. Everyone who took part in this survey is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), a group of people recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses who have agreed to take surveys regularly. This kind of recruitment gives nearly all U.S. adults a chance of selection. Interviews were conducted either online or by telephone with a live interviewer. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education, presidential vote (among voters) and other factors. Read more about the ATP’s methodology.

Here are the questions used for this analysis, the topline, and the survey methodology.