Defeating Covid-19 in the U.S. is now mired in a partisan information war, a fight that President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress are ill-equipped to win, according to Bloomberg.
Biden’s struggle to control the coronavirus and vaccine misinformation online was evident in his broadside Friday that companies like Facebook Inc. were “killing people.” He begged social media platforms to change and pleaded with the American people not to believe everything they read.
Alphabet Inc.’s Google said Monday its YouTube video service will start labeling health videos with information on how authoritative the source is and Twitter Inc. says it’s working with public health authorities and will “continue to take enforcement action on content that violates our Covid-19 misleading information policy.”
But Facebook went on the counterattack -- accusing the White House of “finger-pointing” for failing to meet its vaccination target -- indicating that the company is already doing everything it’s willing to do.
Biden’s comments came after months of meetings with social media companies to address misinformation on their platforms, according to an administration official. Discussions with Facebook grew increasingly unproductive in recent months and the administration was unsatisfied with the company’s responses to requests for more details about its response to inaccuracies and unscientific speculation, the official said. Still, there wasn’t much the White House could do but complain.
Biden walked back his earlier comments slightly on Monday, saying online misinformation is the culprit, not the companies themselves. When asked whether he would hold social media companies accountable, he said he’s “trying to make people look at themselves, look in the mirror” and imagine those falsehoods going to people they care about and act accordingly.
Imran Ahmed, head of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, said that Biden’s plea reflects his frustration with the spread of vaccine inaccuracies online -- and his powerlessness to fix it.
The Biden administration fell short of its goal for at least 70% of eligible Americans to receive one shot by July 4. Now 72.3% of the adult population, or 186 million Americans, has received at least one dose, while at least 161 million people have completed the vaccination regime. The vaccine rollout, however, has stalled, and now the gap between the most and least vaccinated counties in the U.S. has widened, leaving many communities vulnerable to continued outbreaks.
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