This is a preview of a research report from Business Insider Intelligence and is exclusively available to enterprise subscribers. To learn more about getting access to this report, email Senior Account Executive Chris Roth at croth@businessinsider.com, or check to see if your company already has access.

Business Insider Intelligence

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg made waves recently when he gave a speech at Georgetown University in which he described his stance on free speech, pushed back against calls for tighter moderation controls on his social network, and even framed Facebook's origin story around the Iraq War.

That last bit drew quite a bit of criticism, notably from Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. "There's some amount of revisionist history in all his storytelling," Dorsey said. "It takes away from the authenticity and the genuineness of what we're trying to do."

As Dorsey suggests, the larger point in the current discourse around free speech is about authenticity and trust in social media platforms. Users want to have confidence that a social platform will protect their information and provide a safe environment for them to create and engage with content.

And this has significant benefits for the platforms themselves, as well. When users feel a platform is catering to their interests and privacy, they're likely to engage more authentically and perceive that environment as trustworthy. Brands that create compelling campaigns on trusted platforms can both avoid brand-safety issues and also receive more positive engagement from audiences.

In the third annual Digital Trust Report from Business Insider Intelligence, our respondents are more receptive to ads and sponsored content on platforms that have high digital trust.

Across the four pillars of trust that we assessed (Security, Legitimacy, Community, and Relevance), a majority of respondents indicated that each has a moderate to very high impact on whether they engage with an ad: 75% said so for Legitimacy (whether a platform shows them deceptive content); 72% for Community (whether a platform makes them feel safe to use); 69% for Security (whether a platform protects their privacy and data); and 63% for Relevance (whether a platform shows them relevant ads).

Business Insider Intelligence's 2019 Digital Trust Report, our latest Enterprise Edge Report, evaluates consumer perception of social networks, and uses those perceptions to rank the platforms on digital trustworthiness across six pillars: Security, Legitimacy, Community, User Experience, Shareability, and Relevance.

For this year's ranking, we surveyed 1,974 members of Business Insider's proprietary panel to gauge how perceptions of digital trustworthiness differ among seven of the largest social platforms: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, and Pinterest. The full report analyzes key changes in rankings from 2018 and 2017.

Most trusted social media in 2019

LinkedIn Pinterest Instagram Snapchat Twitter YouTube Facebook

Respondents to our Digital Trust Survey are social media users and tend to be younger, male, affluent, North American, and early tech adopters. In other words, they're people who pay attention to new developments with tech platforms, and who also have money to spend based on the ads they view. To that end, we view our data as both a leading indicator of the state of trust in digital platforms as well as a concrete measure of sentiment among a valuable segment of the population.

The six pillars in Business Insider Intelligence's model of digital trust are:

Security — Q: How confident are you that the following social platforms are protecting your privacy and data? Legitimacy — Q: How likely are the following platforms to show you deceptive content like fake news, scams, or clickbait? Community — Q: How safe do you feel participating in or posting on the following social platforms? User Experience — Q: Which platform has the most annoying ads? Shareability — Q: On which platform are you most likely to share content you come across? Relevance — Q: How likely are the following platforms to show you ads/sponsored content that are relevant to you?

Business Insider Intelligence

Here are a few key takeaways from the report:

LinkedIn was the most-trusted platform among respondents for the third year in a row. LinkedIn held the top spot in three out of our six pillars, and second place in the remaining three — Shareability, User Experience, and Relevance.

LinkedIn held the top spot in three out of our six pillars, and second place in the remaining three — Shareability, User Experience, and Relevance. Facebook performed worse across every pillar after another damaging year for its public image. For example, on the Security pillar, more than four in five (81%) of respondents who were also Facebook users said they were only slightly or not at all confident in the platform to protect their privacy and data, compared with 79% who said so last year.

For example, on the Security pillar, more than four in five (81%) of respondents who were also Facebook users said they were only slightly or not at all confident in the platform to protect their privacy and data, compared with 79% who said so last year. Facebook's lead on Shareability is shrinking, while Instagram surpassed Twitter to rank third. This year, 33% of respondents who use Facebook said Facebook is where they were most likely to share content, down from 39% who said the same last year. Meanwhile, Instagram saw a healthy jump: 17% of respondents who use Instagram said it is the platform on which they are most likely to share content, up from 10% in 2018.

This year, 33% of respondents who use Facebook said Facebook is where they were most likely to share content, down from 39% who said the same last year. Meanwhile, Instagram saw a healthy jump: 17% of respondents who use Instagram said it is the platform on which they are most likely to share content, up from 10% in 2018. Millennial respondents are significantly more annoyed by Instagram ads than last year. Overall, 7% of respondents who use the platform said that Instagram had the most annoying ads out of all platforms they used, up from 4% last year. But among millennial respondents, 13% said that Instagram ads were the most annoying, up from 6% last year.

Overall, 7% of respondents who use the platform said that Instagram had the most annoying ads out of all platforms they used, up from 4% last year. But among millennial respondents, 13% said that Instagram ads were the most annoying, up from 6% last year. Facebook is by far the worst performer in terms of deceptive content, followed by Twitter and YouTube. Nearly half (47%) of respondents think Facebook is extremely likely to show them deceptive content like fake news, compared with Twitter (25%) and YouTube (20%).

The full report is available to Business Insider Intelligence enterprise clients. To learn more about this report, email Senior Account Executive Chris Roth (croth@businessinsider.com).