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Social Media Buzz: Biden Blames Facebook, Olympic Village, #DACA

Social Media Buzz: Biden Blames Facebook, Olympic Village, #DACA

What’s buzzing on social media this morning:

President Joe Biden said Friday that social media platforms were “killing people” by allowing misinformation about Covid-19 vaccine to spread. #DeleteFacebook was trending on Twitter afterward.

  • “Look, the only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated,” Biden said, responding to a reporter’s question about misinformation on social-media platforms such as Facebook.

The Tokyo Olympics registered its first case at the athletes’ village, less than a week before the opening ceremony. A foreign personnel member, who is not an athlete, tested positive for Covid-19 and is in quarantine.

  • More than 60,000 athletes, coaches, national team staff, media and other essential workers will converge on Tokyo from more than 200 countries, which risks turning Toyko Olympics into a superspreader event.

U.K. Health Secretary Sajid Javid said he tested positive for Covid-19, less than a month after returning to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s cabinet to lead the government’s response to the pandemic. In a video on Twitter, Javid said he has taken two doses of vaccines and his symptoms are mild.

#DACA is trending after a federal judge in Texas ruled that the program protecting “Dreamers” who came to the U.S. as children from deportation was implemented unconstitutionally. The ruling doesn’t affect current DACA recipients, but halts approvals of new applications.

  • U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen of Houston said making the program legal is a job for the Congress and the Biden administration, which have failed so far to reach agreement on the issue.
  • In a statement Saturday, President Biden said the U.S. will appeal the “disappointing” ruling.

Heavy rains and floods are wreaking havoc in central Europe, with more than 100 dead in Germany and scores of people unaccounted for after houses collapsed and roads and bridges were destroyed. German Chancellor Angela Merkel plans to visit areas affected by the flooding on Sunday, according to newspaper Bild am Sonntag.

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