Psaki rejects Fox Reporter’s “inaccurate” claim that WH “spied” on Facebook profiles

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Jen Psaki on Friday called a Fox News reporter’s question “loaded and inaccurate.” Reporter Peter Dossey had asked if the White House was spying on Facebook accounts. Psaki rejected this claim, saying the profiles are public. See more stories on the Insider Business page.

On Friday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki rejected a Fox News reporter’s claim that the Biden administration was “spying” on Facebook accounts spreading misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines.

“How long has the administration been spying on people’s Facebook pages for vaccine misinformation?” Peter Dossey, a Fox correspondent, asked Psaki, referring to recent reports that the White House has recommended that social media companies censor accounts that spread misinformation about public health.

Psaki Dosei interrupted, calling his question “loaded and inaccurate.” She said the accounts were publicly available and so the management was not “spying” on them.

“This is information that is open to the public, people are sharing information online, just as you all relay information on your news stations,” she said.

Independent researchers have found that small groups of people are responsible for the vast majority of anti-vaccine misinformation on social platforms such as Facebook. In March, a report by the nonprofit Advocacy Center Against Digital Hate linked up to 73% of false or misleading anti-vaccine posts on Facebook to just 12 people. The company has since said it has removed some of the accounts and public pages associated with these people.

Dossey pressed Psaki about whether the people behind these 12 accounts knew the White House was “browsing their profiles.”

“These are the people who share information on a public platform,” Psaki reiterated.

“There is no secret list,” she added.

Psaki then turned the conversation toward the importance of tackling vaccine misinformation online, saying it contributes to the COVID-19 death toll.

“Our biggest concern here, and I honestly think your biggest concern should be, is the number of people dying across the country because they’re getting misinformed not to get a vaccine,” she said.

Psaki added that the department is reporting false information, including that COVID-19 vaccines affect fertility, to social media companies and urging them to censor them.

“We want to know that social media platforms are taking steps to address it – any false and inaccurate information,” she said.

—App (Acke) Jul 16, 2021 – Acyn (Acyn) Jul 16, 2021 – Recount (therecount) Jul 16, 2021

Shortly after the press conference, reporters questioned President Joe Biden about vaccine misinformation on Facebook. Asked about a message to social media companies, Biden replied: “They’re killing people.”

—Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) July 16, 2021

Facebook announced in February that it intended to crack down on vaccine misinformation. The company said accounts would be subject to removal if they made false or false allegations. The social media platform acknowledged that “there is still a long way to go” but said it was “focused on supporting health leaders and government officials in their work to immunize billions of people against COVID-19.”

These false claims include “denying the existence of COVID, claiming that false treatments are actually a way to solve COVID and not vaccination, denouncing vaccines and denouncing doctors as corrupt in some way or driven by other factors when they recommend vaccines,” Omran said. Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Combating Digital Hate, who conducted the research on 12 people whose accounts made headlines.

For its part, Fox News broadcast criticism of some vaccination efforts. Prominent figures, including Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham, have attacked the Biden administration’s introduction of a vaccine. Carlson called Biden’s recent approach to launching a “door-to-door” vaccine campaign the “biggest scandal” of his life, and Ingraham said it was “scary stuff.” Carlson also fueled vaccine skepticism, as he once claimed that unspecified forces were “lying” to the public about the shots.

COVID-19 continues to spread largely among unvaccinated people in the United States, “This has become an epidemic of the unvaccinated,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walinsky said Friday.

Nearly 59% of American adults were fully vaccinated as of Friday, according to data compiled by The New York Times. About 67% of adults have received at least one dose of COVID-19.

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