Biden says platforms like Facebook are ‘killing people’ with Covid disinformation

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“They’re killing people — I mean, they’re really, look, the only epidemic we have is among the unvaccinated,” Biden told reporters as he left the White House for Camp David. “They are killing people.”

US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy on Thursday warned that misinformation “poses a serious public health threat,” and the administration directly called on social media giant Facebook not to do enough to stop the spread of false information on its platform. A source familiar with the talks told CNN that meetings between the Biden administration and Facebook in recent weeks have been “tense.”

The source said that Biden officials who conveyed concerns about vaccine misinformation to Facebook concluded that the company was either “not taking this seriously, or it is hiding something” due to what they see as Facebook’s unwillingness to tackle vaccine misinformation.

A Facebook spokesperson did not directly respond to the source’s characterization of the company’s efforts, but he did tell CNN that Facebook is working to address misinformation about Covid-19 and has launched initiatives such as a vaccine appointment tool.

Earlier on Friday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki criticized social media platforms for taking inadequate action on misinformation.

“Why don’t we all participate in a process that helps provide accurate information there?” Psaki said.

Psaki said Friday that the White House does not find Facebook’s response and information sharing surrounding misinformation about the vaccine sufficient.

On Thursday, Psaki cited four actions the administration wants social media platforms to take: measure the impact of misinformation on their platform and share it publicly, implement a more robust enforcement strategy, take faster action against malicious posts and promote high-quality information in their feed algorithm.

Asked by CNN’s Phil Mattingly on Friday about the details of the requests and whether Facebook was responding to the requests, Psaki made it clear that the White House is in regular contact with social media platforms.

“We regularly make sure that social media platforms are aware of the latest public health risk narratives that we and many other Americans see across all social and traditional media,” she said.

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins and Donnie O’Sullivan contributed to this report.

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