Both left and right agree that it's the bad, divisive stuff that goes viral on social media that least deserves it, while the good stuff is not amplified as it should be

Rathje, Steve, Claire Robertson, William J. Brady, and Jay J. Van Bavel. 2022. “People Think That Social Media Platforms Do (but Should Not) Amplify Divisive Content.” PsyArXiv. October 11. doi:10.31234/osf.io/gmun4

Abstract: There is widespread debate about how to improve or regulate social media algorithms. We review the type of content that is most likely to spread widely, or go “viral” on social media, and describe how people’s perceptions of what goes viral does not match their preference about what should go viral. We recruited a nationally representative sample of US participants and surveyed them about their perceptions of social media virality (n = 511). In line with prior research, people believe that divisive content, moral outrage, negative content, high-arousal content, and misinformation are all likely to go viral online. However, people reported that this type of content should not go viral on social media. Instead, people reported that many forms of positive content – such as accurate content, nuanced content, and educational content – are not likely to go viral, even though they think this content should go viral. Importantly, these perceptions were widely shared, and were only weakly related to political orientation, social media usage, and demographic variables. In sum, there is broad consensus around the type of content people think social media platforms should and should not amplify, which can help inform solutions for improving social media.