Facebook and the Biden administration engaged in an increasingly heated war of words over the weekend after President Joe Biden said Friday that tech platforms …
Facebook and the Biden administration engaged in an increasingly heated war of words over the weekend after President Joe Biden said Friday that tech platforms like the social media giant are “killing people” by allowing misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines to spread online. “They’re killing people,” Biden said Friday on the lawn of the White House. “The only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated.” A Facebook spokesman pushed back against Biden’s accusations, noting the company directed more than 2 billion people to reliable information about COVID-19 and vaccines. Facebook has an online hub for COVID-19 information as part of an effort to steer people toward authoritative sources. More than 3.3 million Americans have also used Facebook’s vaccine finder tool, he said. “We will not be distracted by accusations which aren’t supported by the facts,” a Facebook spokesman said in a statement. “The facts show that Facebook is helping save lives. Period.” In a blog post on Saturday, Facebook called on the administration to stop “finger-pointing” and detailed its efforts to get people vaccinated and reduce misinformation about the vaccines. “The Biden administration has chosen to blame a handful of American social media companies,” Guy Rosen, Facebook’s vice president of integrity, said in the post.
