Current Events > They're killing people: Biden blames Facebook for allowing Covid misinformation

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https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/they-re-killing-people-biden-blames-facebook-other-social-media-n1274232

President Joe Biden on Friday criticized social media platforms like Facebook for spreading misinformation about the coronavirus and vaccines, as his administration has blamed them for stalling U.S. vaccine rates. "Theyre killing people," Biden said when asked what his message was to social media platforms like Facebook on the spread of false and misleading claims about the virus and the safety of vaccines that prevent it. "The only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated, and thats theyre killing people," he continued. U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy on Thursday issued his first advisory raising alarm about the growing wave of misinformation about Covid-19 and related vaccines that threatens the administration's efforts to quell the pandemic. White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Thursday also said that Facebook was not doing enough to stop the spread of false information on the coronavirus. Psaki said the White House made a number of recommendations to Facebook and other platforms to address the spread of misinformation, including removing 12 people who she said were responsible for almost 65 percent of anti-vaccine misinformation on social media platforms.

A spokesperson for Facebook responded to Psaki's comments, saying that the company has taken "aggressive action against misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines to protect public health." The spokesperson said Facebook "removed more than 18 million pieces of COVID misinformation, removed accounts that repeatedly break these rules, and connected more than 2 billion people to reliable information about COVID-19 and COVID vaccines across our apps." When asked Friday whether the White House found those actions sufficient, Psaki said "clearly not because we're talking about additional steps that should be taken." The White House has also recommended that social media platforms measure and publicly share the impact of misinformation on their platform, take faster action to remove harmful posts and promote quality information sources in their feed algorithm.

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wonder what additional measures they expect FB to take?

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Giant_Aspirin posted...

wonder what additional measures they expect FB to take?

The interesting thing with these comments today is that this is what was said yesterday. So Biden admin has already pretty much had control of the comments if what that reporter said is true.

https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1415725320381079569

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People complaining about misinformation being "censored" can suck my dick.

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Lebronwon posted...

The interesting thing with these comments today is that this is what was said yesterday. So Biden admin has already pretty much had control of the comments if what that reporter said is true.

https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1415725320381079569

The scary fascists are out to protect your health. The nerve!

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Misinformation in general needs to be cracked down on hard both on the internet and on TV. Too bad Democrats don't have the balls and Republicans love it, so nothing will be done about any of it.

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Twitter as well. Both been pretty terrible in the spread of anti vax information. Youtube isn't much better either.

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Social media was a mistake - Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.

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Funkydog posted...

Twitter as well. Both been pretty terrible in the spread of anti vax information. Youtube isn't much better either.

Youtube is probably not as bad at the population level, simply because of the time it takes to interact with the content. But on an individual level it's way way worse, and likely has secondary effects with these people contributing to spread on other services.

I mean, just look at joenumbers.

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lol at Biden attacking FB after they spent all of last year censoring the conservatives. Remember when people got banned just for talking about COVID origin might have been a lab leak. Seems like Biden just looking for a scapegoat.

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Yeah, he's not wrong.

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Pitlord_Special posted...

Social media was a mistake - Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.

he aint wrong

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What counts as misinformation?

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COVxy posted...

I mean, just look at joenumbers.

I put his crazy arse on ignore long ago. Literally get a more productive conversation talking to one of those fake ai convo bots from decades ago.

But for other stuff you said.... yup. Their algorithm sucks you into the rabbit hole and then leaves you in it, and gives you things to then send on to others again and again as it feeds you the shitty fake news.


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