Facebook denies Biden’s blame that he’s ‘killing people’ with fake COVID news

Joe Biden, the current and 46th President of the United States, recently criticized Facebook and other major social media platforms with really harsh words. When an NBC News reporter asked the president about the spread of disinformation related to COVID-19 and its vaccines on these social media sites, Biden said “They’re killing people.” He went on to say “The only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated.”

Facebook clearly disputed these claims and a company spokesperson responded by saying, “We will not be distracted by accusations that are not supported by the facts.” Earlier today, the social media giant posted a blog post discussing its active role in the fight against disinformation and the general commitment it has been involved in to fight COVID-19.

Here are the steps Facebook says it took to help:

• Since the start of the pandemic, more than 2 billion people have viewed authoritative information about COVID-19 and vaccines on Facebook. This includes more than 3.3 million Americans using our vaccine finder to find out where to get a COVID-19 vaccine and make an appointment to do so.

• Over 50% of people in the United States on Facebook have seen someone use the COVID-19 vaccine profile frameworks, which we developed in collaboration with the United States Department of Health and Human Services and the CDC. From what we have seen, when people see a friend say that they have been vaccinated, it increases their perception that the vaccines are safe.

• We continue to encourage everyone to use these tools to show their friends that they have been vaccinated. For those who are hesitant, hearing from a friend who has been vaccinated definitely has more of an impact than hearing from a big business or the federal government.

• Since the start of the pandemic, we have removed more than 18 million cases of COVID-19 misinformation.

• We’ve also tagged and reduced the visibility of over 167 million pieces of COVID-19 content debunked by our network of fact-checking partners so that fewer people see it and, when they see it, they have context. full.

It all helped, according to Facebook according to surveys it has been conducting in conjunction with Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Maryland since April of last year. The company claims that about 85% of Facebook users in the United States have been or are ready to be vaccinated, a number that shows a sharp increase since the end of last year.

Source: Facebook via NBC News