Get 40% Off
🤯 This Tech Portfolio is up 29% YTD! Join Now to Get April’s Top PicksGet The Picks – Just 99 USD

White House slams Facebook as conduit for COVID-19 misinformation

Published 07/15/2021, 09:32 AM
Updated 07/15/2021, 07:50 PM
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Vivek Murthy speaks during his confirmation hearing to be Medical Director in the Regular Corps of the Public Health Service and to be Surgeon General of the Public Health Service before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions commit

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Vivek Murthy speaks during his confirmation hearing to be Medical Director in the Regular Corps of the Public Health Service and to be Surgeon General of the Public Health Service before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions commit

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Facebook is not doing enough to stop the spread of false claims about COVID-19 and vaccines, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Thursday, part of a new administration pushback on misinformation in the United States.

Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), which owns Instagram and WhatsApp, needs to work harder to remove inaccurate vaccine information from its platform, Psaki said.

She said 12 people were responsible for almost 65% of anti-vaccine misinformation on social media platforms. The finding was reported in May by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, but Facebook has disputed the methodology.

"All of them remain active on Facebook," Psaki said. Facebook also "needs to move more quickly to remove harmful violative posts," she said.

U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy also raised the alarm over the growing wave of misinformation about COVID-19 and related vaccines, saying it is making it harder to fight the pandemic and save lives.

"American lives are at risk," he said in a statement.

In his first advisory as the nation's top doctor under President Joe Biden, Murthy called on tech companies to tweak their algorithms to further demote false information and share more data with researchers and the government to help teachers, healthcare workers and the media fight misinformation.

"Health misinformation is a serious threat to public health. It can cause confusion, sow mistrust, harm people's health, and undermine public health efforts. Limiting the spread of health misinformation is a moral and civic imperative," he said in the advisory, first reported by National Public Radio.

False information feeds hesitancy to get vaccinated, leading to preventable deaths, Murthy said, noting misinformation can affect other health conditions and is a worldwide problem.

A Facebook spokesperson said the company has partnered with government experts, health authorities and researchers to take "aggressive action against misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines to protect public health".

"So far we've removed more than 18 million pieces of COVID misinformation, removed accounts that repeatedly break these rules, and connected more than 2 billion people to reliable information about COVID-19 and COVID vaccines across our apps," the spokesperson added.

Facebook has introduced rules against making certain false claims about COVID-19 and its vaccines. Still, researchers and lawmakers have long complained about lax policing of content on its site.

Murthy said at a White House press briefing that COVID-19 misinformation comes mostly from individuals who may not know they are spreading false claims, but also a few "bad actors".

His advisory also urges people not to spread questionable information online. The head of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a group that tracks COVID-19 misinformation online, said it was inadequate.

"On tobacco packets they say that tobacco kills," the group's chief executive Imran Ahmed told NPR. "On social media we need a 'Surgeon General's Warning: Misinformation Kills.'"

U.S. COVID-19 infections last week rose about 11% from the previous week, with the highest increases in areas with vaccination rates of less than 40%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and continued to tick up on Wednesday.

Cases plummeted in the spring as the vaccine rolled out following a winter spike in infections, but shots have slowed and just about 51% of the country has been vaccinated, Reuters data show https://tmsnrt.rs/3icFXMT.

© Reuters. A journalist raises a hand to ask a question during United States Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s remarks at a news conference with White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki at the White House in Washington, U.S., July  15, 2021. REUTERS/Tom Brenner

"It's been hard to get people to move" from not wanting the COVID-19 vaccine "to recognizing that the risk is still there," Dr. Richard Besser, a former CDC chief who now heads the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, told MSNBC.

Representatives for the nation's largest tech companies could not be immediately reached for comment on the advisory.

Latest comments

There is no public free speech. The moment u attract a crowd n they dont like u, the gov shut u down. Facebook is tasked to police free speech.
Biden also spread misinformation. The efficacity of vaccines is in doubt and people need to know that under 50%, it means no difference with a placebo, so with Delta now as common in use, you have more chances without a vaccine than with a vaccine, That's the real thing to know but it differ with what autotities are saying. Who give the misinformation in such case ?
Risk Disclosure: Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.
© 2007-2024 - Fusion Media Limited. All Rights Reserved.