Days after Facebook publicly rejected President Joe Biden’s message to the platform that it’s “killing people” by allowing the spread of vaccine misinformation, even as COVID-19 infections rise and vaccinations fall around the U.S., he tried to clean up his comment about the social media giant Monday, saying he hopes Facebook doesn’t take it “personally.”
“It was pointed out that Facebook, of all the misinformation, 60% of the misinformation came from 12 individuals. That’s what the article said,” the president said, in reference to Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s warning last week of the threat misinformation poses to public health.
“My hope is that Facebook — instead of taking it personally — that somehow I’m saying Facebook is killing people, that they would do something about the misinformation — the outrageous misinformation — about the vaccine. That’s what I meant,” President Biden clarified.
When pressed if he felt the social media company was doing enough to combat the misinformation, the president said he was unsure, because he wasn’t sure what action they had taken over the weekend.
The controversial comment came on Friday, one day after the surgeon general put out a new advisory arguing that misinformation, particularly on social media websites like Facebook, has hindered vaccination efforts and prolonged the pandemic — putting more lives at risk
