Roughly half of Americans are siding with the government over Apple about whether it should help unlock the iPhone connected to the San Bernardino attacks, according to the results of a new Pew Research Center study released Monday.
The poll found that 51 percent of those surveyed think the tech giant should create the software to unlock the phone and assist the FBI in the investigation. Slightly more than one third (38 percent) said that Apple should not unlock the phone and 11 percent did not know.
The survey found no discernible difference between Democrats and Republicans. Fifty-six percent of Republicans and 55 percent of Democrats say that Apple should unlock the phone, but independents are more divided: 45 percent say the phone should be unlocked, while 42 percent believe it should not.
On Sunday night FBI Director James Comey wrote a blog post urging Apple to follow the court order and unlock the iPhone 5c used by one of the shooters in the San Bernardino massacre in December.
Apple has a court-issued deadline to respond to the FBI’s request on Friday. The company has so far refused, citing privacy concerns.
The telephone survey of 1,002 adults was conducted Feb. 18-21, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.
