Oct 1 (Reuters) – A growing number of people think social media manipulates and divides people and harms democracy, Pew Research Center said ​on Thursday, echoing rising concern and tighter scrutiny across ‌the world.

Companies running popular social platforms, including Meta (META.O), opens new tab, Snap (SNAP.N), opens new tab and TikTok, have faced thousands of lawsuits and paid large sums to settle claims that they harmed users. ​Governments, meanwhile, have sought foolproof ways to protect their ​citizens’ privacy.