“GREAT social media operators spreading misinformation about vaccines are killing people,” U.S. President Joe Biden said yesterday.
“They are killing people. The only pandemic we have affects people who have not been vaccinated. They are killing people,” the US president said when asked about his message to Facebook.
The White House significantly tightened its tone towards big technology companies this week and asked them to fight more against false information regarding the vaccine.
The United States is working to re-launch vaccination, especially because of the very rapid spread of the delta variant.
“12 people create 65 percent of vaccine misinformation”
On Thursday, Biden administration spokeswoman Jen Psaki specifically addressed the social network Facebook.
“There are about 12 people on social media who create 65 percent of the disinformation against vaccines. They are all active on Facebook, while some have been banished from other platforms,” she said.
The White House has not yet specified which 12 people are involved or how it came to this information.
“Facebook needs to delete dangerous messages and those that break the rules faster. Messages that break the rules often stay visible for days. It’s too long. Messages travel too fast,” said Jen Psaki.
Mark Zuckerberg’s network responded to those statements Thursday and defended that it had already withdrawn “more than 18 million misinformation about and shared more than 2 billion secure information about and vaccines”.