While the White House works to pressure Facebook and other platforms to fight vaccine misinformation, the president blamed them for COVID deaths.<\/b>
\nPresident Biden took his administration\u2019s critical stance toward big tech up a notch on Friday, when he said that Facebook and other companies were \u201ckilling people\u201d by not doing more to combat COVID vaccine misinformation on their platforms. \u201cThe only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated,\u201d Biden said to a reporter outside the White House. \u201cAnd they\u2019re [the tech platforms] killing people.\u201d Reporter: «What’s your message to platforms like Facebook?» President Biden: «They’re killing people.» pic.twitter.com\/z9QPC2DO3t The comment comes amid increased efforts by the White House to pressure tech companies to do a better job policing anti-vaccine content shared by their users. Earlier Friday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki referenced the issue while speaking with reporters, calling the fight against false information about coronavirus vaccines \u201ca life or death issue.\u201d On Thursday, Psaki said that the Biden administration was engaging with Facebook directly and flagging misinformation-spreading posts. She also called on the companies to measure and be transparent about the impact of misinformation shared via their platforms and implement faster, more robust enforcement. Also on Thursday, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy published a report arguing in part that social-media platforms need to put more money into their efforts to prevent the spread of coronavirus misinformation, as the Verge\u2019s Makena Kelly noted: The report calls for an all-of-society push to address vaccine and coronavirus misinformation, including sweeping policy recommendations for companies like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. [Murthy] specifically calls on companies to redesign their algorithms to \u201cavoid amplifying misinformation.\u201d He also suggests that they build more \u201cfriction\u201d into sharing functions that urge users to rethink whether to share a post containing false information. Murthy also recommends that platforms put out \u201cclear consequences for accounts that repeatedly violate platform policies,\u201d like instituting broader bans and suspensions for sharing misinformation. Facebook, however, was not pleased with Biden suggesting it kills people. Responding to the president\u2019s comment, a company spokesperson insisted, \u201cWe will not be distracted by accusations which aren\u2019t supported by the facts,\u201d and touted the platform as a source of \u201cauthoritative information about COVID-19 and vaccines.\u201d \u201cThe facts show that Facebook is helping save lives,\u201d the spokesperson concluded. \u201cPeriod.\u201d The White House pressure campaign on big tech comes amid a rapid uptick in reported COVID-19 cases across the country among unvaccinated people, fueled by the spread of the dangerous Delta coronavirus variant.<\/p>\n