The United States President Joe Biden has come out against Facebook, declaring that the social network is killing people by spreading misinformation about COVID-19.
On Friday, when Biden was asked about the spread of COVID-19 misinformation on Facebook he said: “They are killing people, the only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated, they are killing people.”
However, the president softened the blow yesterday in a press conference at the White House. He said: “Facebook isn’t killing people, these 12 people are out there getting misinformation, anyone listening to it is getting hurt by it, it’s killing people it’s bad information.
The 12 people Biden is referring to are the 12 people that CCDH, a non-profit and non-government organisation, found were responsible for the majority of disinformation on Facebook.
Biden added: “My hope is that Facebook, instead of taking it personally that somehow I’m saying, ‘Facebook is killing people,’ that they would do something about the misinformation.”
Facebook has been criticised for years for the spread of misinformation. However, the social network has made efforts to try and curb the misinformation on the platform, by removing certain posts, but it has not consistently de-platformed incorrect information.
The BBC, reported that a spokesman for Facebook, Kevin McAlister, said: “not be distracted by accusations which aren’t supported by the facts.”
Guy Rosen, VP of Integrity for Facebook published a blog post in response to Biden’s accusations, titled: ‘Moving Past The Finger Pointing.’
Rosen said: “The data shows that 85 per cent of Facebook users in the US have been, or want to be vaccinated against COVID-19. President Biden’s goal was for 70 per cent of Americans to be vaccinated by July 4. Facebook is not the reason this goal was missed.”
However, Facebook has refused to share with the US Government how many Americans have read COVID-19 vaccination misinformation on Facebook.
