Pandemic disinformation: Biden condemns social media, says they are killing people

Washington: The US president Joe Biden strongly condemned social media platforms, including Facebook, reports The Guardian. He said that the platforms are killing people by allowing misinformation and conspiracy theories regarding Covid-19 vaccines to spread among them. He was responding to reporters when asked about the disinformation plaguing social media.

Misinformation and conspiracy theories regarding the pandemic have been spreading through sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Many including researchers and lawmakers have accused Facebook of its failure to enforce restrictions on the information it conducts, even though the firm has imposed rules against false claims about the pandemic and vaccines.

However, Facebook responded that they are not distracted by the accusations and claimed that more than 2 billion people received authentic information about the pandemic and vaccines on Facebook, which is more than any other place on the internet. It said that 3.3 million Americans had used its vaccine finder tool, and thus Facebook is helping save lives.

Twitter or YouTube didn't comment yet.

On Friday, Jen Psaki,-White House press secretary- had also criticized Facebook. He had said that the steps taken by Facebook are not enough. The day before, she had said that the US administration was in regular contact with signalling problematic content. Vivek Murthy, the US surgeon general, also pointed out the surging misinformation regarding pandemic vaccine and added that it is making it harder to fight it