The White House intensified its campaign against vaccine misinformation on Friday by criticizing Facebook and other platforms for spreading misinformation – and thereby increasing deaths from the deadly pandemic.
In response to a question about Facebook, Biden said, “They’re killing people… Unvaccinated people are the only ones causing death.” A request for clarification of the president’s remarks was not immediately responded to.
Reporter: “What’s your message to platforms like Facebook?”
— The Hill (@thehill) July 16, 2021
President Biden: “They’re killing people.” pic.twitter.com/jrAvQpG7i0
President Joe Biden has stated that social media is killing people by failing to police misinformation on its platforms about COVID-19 vaccines.
Biden’s remarks came after US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy warned that misinformation about health could pose an urgent risk to the public amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Even though social networks like Facebook have stepped up their efforts to combat this problem, the spread of misinformation on health remains a problem.
As Murthy pointed out in his remarks at the White House, misinformation poses an immediate and insidious threat to the health of our nation. As a country, we must address misinformation. Lives are at stake.
“They’ve designed product features, such as ‘Like’ buttons, that reward us for sharing emotionally charged content, not accurate content,” Murthy told reporters. “And their algorithms tend to give us more of what we click on, pulling us deeper and deeper into a well of misinformation.”
As the internet plays an increasingly important role in spreading health misinformation, Murthy believes technology companies and social media platforms must modify their products and software to prevent the spread of false data in addition to increasing access to credible sources of information. He said platforms are too often set up in a way that makes misinformation easier to spread rather than counteracting it.
Despite Biden’s accusations, a Facebook spokesman said the company directed over 2 billion people to credible information about COVID-19 and vaccines. In an effort to steer people towards authoritative sources, Facebook has an online COVID-19 information hub. Facebook’s vaccine finder tool has also been used by more than 3.3 million American adults, he said.
“Facebook saves lives,” continued the spokesperson. “Period.”
Comments come as tensions widen between the U.S. government and Facebook as politicians and regulators attempt to limit the company’s power. Biden was critical of Facebook before he was elected president, telling The New York Times in January 2020 he wasn’t a “fan” of the company or its CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
A White House briefing on Thursday included a discussion of the advisory given by Murthy. A few dozen people created about 65% of the vaccine misinformation on social media platforms, Jen Psaki said during that briefing. The Center for Countering Digital Hate published a report in May with that statistic.
On Thursday, Psaki specifically targeted Facebook, saying the administration flags problematic posts to the social media company.
Psaki said about 12 Facebook users are responsible for about 65% of the anti-vaccine misinformation spread on social media platforms, even though some of them have been banned on Facebook and other platforms.
Facebook has deleted more than a dozen pages, accounts, and groups from those mentioned by Psaki in her press conference. Also, 18 million pieces of misinformation about COVID-19 were taken down by the social network.
“We’re working with government and health authorities to take aggressive action against misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines,” a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement.