Biden Tempers Jab at Facebook, Calls Vaccine Falsehoods Harmful
Biden Says Disinformation on Facebook is Harmful, in Walk-Back
(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden said that disinformation about Covid-19 vaccines on Facebook Inc. harms those who believe it, walking back his accusation last week that social media giants are “killing people” by allowing the posts.
“Facebook isn’t killing people,” Biden said Monday at the White House. “These 12 people who are out there giving misinformation, anyone listening to it is getting hurt by it, it’s killing people.”
“My hope is, that Facebook instead of taking it personally that somehow I’m saying Facebook is killing people, that they would do something about the misinformation,” Biden said. “The outrageous misinformation about the vaccine, that’s what I meant.”
Facebook fired back after Biden’s remarks on Friday, declaring that the accusation was “not supported by facts” and chiding the president for missing a July 4 target to administer at least one dose of vaccine to 70% of U.S. adults.
“Facebook is not the reason this goal was missed,” the company’s vice president of integrity, Guy Rosen, said in a blog post.
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