Earlier, the White House reiterated its stance against Facebook’s lacking efforts to seriously combat COVID-19 misinformation on its platform, urging the company to once again double its efforts. However, the relation between the two entities became somewhat more heated after harsh words about the company were thrown out by US President Joe Biden.
Taking a stance against the Biden administration and more specifically US President Joe Biden, Facebook blasted earlier remarks made by the commander-in-chief and underscored that the platform was “helping save lives” through its efforts to take down COVID-19 misinformation.
The late Friday statement, which is none too positive about the Biden White House, was authored by Dani Lever, who serves as the communications manager for the social media platform.
“We will not be distracted by accusations which aren’t supported by the facts,” Lever wrote. “The fact is that more than 2 billion people have viewed authoritative information about COVID-19 and vaccines on Facebook, which is more than any other place on the internet.”
“More than 3.3 million Americans have also used our vaccine finder tool to find out where and how to get a vaccine. The facts show that Facebook is helping save lives. Period.”
The stern rebuke of the administration came moments after Biden was asked by NBC reporter Peter Alexander what his “message” to Facebook and other social media companies about the spread of COVID-19 misinformation was.
At the time, Biden stated plainly that Facebook and company were “killing people,” going on to say that “the only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated, and that’s – they’re killing people.”
The Recount on X (formerly Twitter): “NBC’s @PeterAlexander: “What’s your message to platforms like Facebook [regarding COVID misinformation]?”President Biden: “They’re killing people.” pic.twitter.com/TIaoeESMdk / X”
NBC’s @PeterAlexander: “What’s your message to platforms like Facebook [regarding COVID misinformation]?”President Biden: “They’re killing people.” pic.twitter.com/TIaoeESMdk
The latest exchange between the administration and Facebook came just a day after White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki stated that the popular platform needed to do much more to combat the emergence of misinformation, including the removal of 12 users who are to blame for 65% of the false claims being made about the respiratory disease and associated vaccines.
Although Facebook later noted that it has removed upwards of “18 million pieces of COVID misinformation,” Psaki said it simply was not enough when asked about the remarks during her Friday briefing with reporters.
