President Joe Biden has said that social media companies are “killing people” by failing to police misinformation on their platforms about COVID-19 vaccines.
Biden’s comments came a day after US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy declared misinformation about the vaccines a threat to public health and as US officials advised that deaths and serious illness from the virus are almost entirely preventable because of the vaccines.
Biden, asked if he had a message for platforms like Facebook where false or misleading information about the coronavirus vaccines has spread, told reporters on Friday: “They’re killing people.”
“The only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated,” he said.
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Social media platforms killing people with misinformation, says Biden
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âTheyâre Killing Peopleâ: Biden Denounces Social Media for Virus Disinformation
The presidentâs blunt statement capped weeks of frustration in the White House over the spread of vaccine disinformation on Facebook and other platforms.
âTheyâre killing people,â President Biden said on Friday when asked what his message was to social media platforms on Covid-19 disinformation.Credit.Sarahbeth Maney/The New York Times
July 16, 2021Updated 8:49 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON â President Biden unleashed his growing frustration with social media on Friday, saying that platforms like Facebook were âkilling peopleâ by allowing disinformation about the coronavirus vaccine to spread online.
Mr. Bidenâs forceful statement capped weeks of anger in the White House over the dissemination of vaccine disinformation online, even as the pace of inoculations slows and health officials warn of the rising danger of the Delta variant.