Can international organizations (IOs) influence attitudes about regulating “Big Tech?” Recent tech sector activity engenders multiple concerns, including the appropriate use of user data and monopolistic business practices. IOs have entered the debate, advocating for increased regulations to protect digital privacy and often framing the issue as a threat to fundamental human rights. Does this advocacy matter? We hypothesize individuals that score high on measures of internationalism will respond positively to calls for increased regulation that come from IOs and INGOs. We further predict Liberals and Democrats will be more receptive to IO and NGO messaging, especially when it emphasizes human rights, while Conservatives and Republicans will be more receptive to messaging from domestic institutions that emphasize antitrust actions. To assess these arguments, we fielded a nationally-representative survey experiment in the U.S. in July 2021 that varied the source and framing of a message about the dangers posed by tech firms, then asked respondents about support for increased regulation. The average treatment effect of international sources is largest for respondents who score high on an index of internationalism and for respondents on the left of the political spectrum. Contrary to expectations, we found few significant differences across human rights and anti-trust framings. Our results suggest the ability of IOs to influence attitudes about tech regulation may be limited in an era of polarization, but that individuals who value multilateralism may still be influenced by IO campaigns.

国际组织 (IO) 能否影响人们对监管“大型科技公司”的态度？最近的科技行业活动引发了多种担忧，包括用户数据的适当使用和垄断商业行为。国际组织已介入辩论，主张加强监管以保护数字隐私，并经常将该问题视为对基本人权的威胁。这种宣传重要吗？我们假设在国际主义衡量标准上得分较高的个人将积极响应国际组织和国际非政府组织加强监管的呼吁。我们进一步预测，自由党和民主党将更容易接受国际组织和非政府组织的信息，特别是在强调人权时，而保守党和共和党将更容易接受国内机构强调反垄断行动的信息。为了评估这些论点，我们于 2021 年 7 月在美国进行了一项具有全国代表性的调查实验，该实验改变了有关科技公司构成的危险的信息的来源和框架，然后询问受访者是否支持加强监管。对于国际主义指数得分高的受访者和政治光谱左翼的受访者来说，国际来源的平均治疗效果最大。与预期相反，我们发现人权和反垄断框架之间几乎没有显着差异。我们的研究结果表明，在两极分化的时代，国际组织影响科技监管态度的能力可能有限，但重视多边主义的个人可能仍会受到国际组织运动的影响。