Facts tell a different story on COVID misinformation, FB tells Biden

SAN FRANCISCO: After US President Joe Biden said that social media platforms like Facebook are "killing people" with COVID-19 misinformation, the social network giant has replied saying that facts tell a very different story to the one promoted by the administration in recent days.

Guy Rosen, VP of Integrity at Facebook, said in a blog post on Saturday that at a time when COVID-19 cases are rising in the US, the Biden administration has chosen to blame a handful of American social media companies.

"While social media plays an important role in society, it is clear that we need a whole of society approach to end this pandemic. And facts,not allegations, should help inform that effort. The fact is that vaccine acceptance among Facebook users in the US has increased," Rosen argued. In an interaction with the media on Friday, Biden had directly criticised Facebook.

Asked for a message to social media platforms like Facebook, Biden replied: "They're killing people... The only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated, and they're killing people."

Rosen said that the Biden administration is calling for a whole of society approach to this challenge.

"We agree. As a company, we have devoted unprecedented resources to the fight against the pandemic, pointing people to reliable information and helping them find and schedule vaccinations. And we will continue to do so," he posted.

The social network said that since the pandemic began, more than 2 billion people have viewed authoritative information about Covid-19 and vaccines on Facebook. This includes more than 3.3 million Americans using the vaccine finder tool to find out where to get a Covid-19 vaccine and make an appointment to do so. (IANS)

Also Read: 212 people dead in violent South African protests

Also Watch: