US President Joe Biden spoke softly about Facebook on Monday, after saying last week that the social media company is “killing people” by allowing misinformation to spread about COVID-19 vaccines. US President Biden told reporters on Monday that he meant to accuse a dozen users of most of the misinformation spread on the social media platform, but not the company itself.
“Facebook is not killing people,” he said. “These 12 people are giving wrong information. Anyone listening to this is getting hurt. It’s killing people. This is bad information.” He also said he expects Facebook to do more to stop the spread of misinformation.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki also tried to clarify Biden’s remarks. “We are not in a war or a fight with Facebook, we are in a battle with the virus,” she said.
COVID-19 misinformation has spread during the pandemic on social media sites including Facebook, Twitter and Alphabet-owned YouTube. Researchers and lawmakers have long accused Facebook of failing to police harmful content on its platform. When asked about his message on Facebook and other social media platforms on Friday, Biden replied: “They are killing people. … Look, the only pandemic we have is without vaccination. And they’re killing people.”
Facebook reacted sharply last week, saying that 85 percent of its users had been vaccinated or wanted to be. “President Biden’s goal was to vaccinate 70 percent of Americans by July 4. There is no reason to miss this goal,” Facebook said in a corporate blog post by Guy Rosen, the company’s vice president. The company has introduced rules against COVID-19 and making specific false claims about vaccines to prevent the disease, and says it provides people with reliable information on these topics.
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