The White House is frustrated that what it calls misinformation on social media is preventing people from getting vaccinated. And it wants the ‘misinformation’ stopped.
When a White House reporter asked Joe Biden, “What’s your message to platforms like Facebook?” Biden responded, “They’re killing people. I mean, really, look, the only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated. And they’re killing people.”
Facebook refuted the claim, saying vaccinations are up. But health officials say it’s an urgent issue, with a new rise in COVID cases in most states, fueled by the Delta variant.
National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins said, “This Delta virus is really a cause of greater concern. This is not last year’s virus.”
More than 65 percent of Americans 12 and over have received at least one dose of the vaccine. But the White House believes social media platforms that allow posts attacking the vaccine are keeping millions of other Americans from being vaccinated.
Surgeon General Vivek Murthy told ABC, “I’ve been deeply concerned about the flow of misinformation across technology platforms and throughout society over the last many months.”
And a firestorm erupted in Washington last week when White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the White House is in regular contact with Facebook about “flagging” posts seen as problematic.
That led a White House reporter to ask, “How long has the administration been spying on people’s Facebook profiles to look for vaccine misinformation?”
Psaki responded, “That was quite a loaded and inaccurate question.”
But Texas Senator Ted Cruz accused the Biden administration of colluding with Big Tech.
“It makes clear that everything we thought about the Biden administration – about their willingness to trample on free speech, to trample on the Constitution, to use government power to silence you, everything we feared they might do, they are doing and worse.”
Cases are up in all but two states in the U.S. Officials in Los Angeles County are even re-instituting an indoor mask mandate, but the sheriff says he won’t enforce it.
Among the latest cases are five of the Texas Democrats who fled to D.C. to stall a state vote on election reform. They met with Vice President Kamala Harris last week.
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