Psaki slams the Biden administration’s work on vaccine misinformation

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“How long has the administration been spying on people’s Facebook pages for vaccine misinformation?” Doocy asked, referring to Psaki’s comments the day before, that roughly a dozen people on Facebook are responsible for the bulk of vaccine misinformation on the social network.

Psaki called the characterization “a loaded and inaccurate question.” She said reporting to the White House about posts on platforms like Facebook is like reaching out to news outlets when you’re dealing with specific coverage.

“This is publicly open information, people sharing information online, just as you all relay information on your news stations,” she said during a difficult exchange in which the couple occasionally spoke to each other.

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy on Thursday declared the spread of lies and conspiracy theories online as an “urgent public health threat” due to their impact on people’s desire for a Covid vaccine.

Murthy’s warning sparked a firestorm in some conservative circles as such misinformation circulated and contributed to low vaccination rates in certain areas. Top Republican lawmakers have accused the Biden administration of colluding with social media companies to censor speech.

Public health officials have sounded the alarm in recent weeks that the huge number of people hospitalized and dying of Covid-19 are now unvaccinated. The White House decided to respond more forcefully to those who discourage vaccination and create more pro-vaccine content, including sites featuring Generation Z pop star Olivia Rodrigo.

President Joe Biden fired shots at platforms including Facebook as he left the White House on Friday afternoon.

“They are killing people,” he told reporters when asked about Facebook. “The only epidemic we have is among the unvaccinated, and they are killing people.”

Facebook said this week it had removed more than 18 million pieces of misinformation related to Covid, removed many accounts, and promoted trustworthy information about vaccines.

But social media companies have struggled to crack down on the information development. For example, Facebook in May retracted a ban on posts claiming that Covid-19 originated in a lab after a controversy over the theory renewed.

Psaki dismissed Doocy’s follow-up question about whether it is appropriate for government officials to monitor social media activity.

“Despite that, I think the big concern a lot of people have on Facebook is that this ‘Big Brother’ is watching you right now,” he said.

“They are more concerned about this than the people dying across the country due to a pandemic as misinformation travels on social media platforms?” Psaki asked. “That seems unlikely to me. If you have the data to back it up, I would be happy to discuss it.”

It’s up to individual companies to monitor their platforms as they see fit, Psaki said, noting at another time during the briefing that efforts so far to combat misinformation “clearly aren’t enough.” It also stated that the White House did not attempt to contact users directly about their posts.

“This is not the federal government doing this,” she said.

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