Social Media and Misinformation

“President Joe Biden said [last] Friday that social media companies are ‘killing people’ by failing to police misinformation on their platforms about COVID-19 vaccines.” (AP News)

Last week, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki stated, “we are in regular touch with these social media platforms… We’re flagging problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation.” She also noted that “there’s about 12 people who are producing 65 percent of anti-vaccine misinformation on social media platforms. All of them remain active on Facebook, despite some even being banned on other platforms, including Facebook — ones that Facebook owns.” (White House)

The right criticizes White House efforts to encourage social media companies to remove misinformation, arguing that it is inappropriate for the government to encourage censorship.

The left is deeply concerned about the spread of misinformation, particularly from right-wing media, and divided about the White House's comments.