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- Jen Psaki on Friday called a Fox News reporter ‘s question “loaded and inaccurate.”
- Journalist Peter Doocy had asked if the White House was spying on Facebook accounts.
- Psaki rejected the request, saying the profiles are public.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Friday rejected a claim by a Fox News reporter that the Biden administration is “spying” on Facebook accounts spreading misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines.
“How long has the administration been spying on the Facebook profiles of people looking for false vaccine information? Fox correspondent Peter Doocy asked Psaki, referring to recent reports that the White House recommended that social media companies censor accounts spreading disinformation about public health.
Psaki interrupted Doocy, calling his question “loaded and inaccurate.” She argued that the accounts are publicly available and therefore the administration does not “spy” on them.
“This is information that is open to the public, people sharing information online, just like you all report information on your news stations,” she said.
Independent researchers have found that small groups of people account for the overwhelming majority of anti-vaccine misinformation on social platforms like Facebook. In March, a report by the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate linked up to 73% of false or misleading anti-vaccine posts on Facebook to just 12 people. The company has since said it has removed certain accounts and public pages linked to these individuals.
Doocy asked Psaki if the people behind these 12 accounts knew the White House was “browsing their profile.”
Psaki reiterated that “these are people sharing information on a public platform.”
“There is no secret list,” she added.
Psaki then shifted the conversation to the importance of tackling vaccine misinformation online, saying it contributes to the number of deaths from COVID-19.
“Our biggest concern here, and I frankly think this should be your biggest concern, is the number of people dying in the country because they are given misinformation that causes them not to take a vaccine,” he said. she declared.
The administration is reporting false information, including that COVID-19 vaccines have an impact on fertility, to social media companies and urges them to censor them, Psaki added.
“We want to know that social media platforms are taking action to rectify this ie inaccurate and false information”, she said.
—App (@Acc) July 16, 2021
—App (@Acc) July 16, 2021
—The recount (@therecount) July 16, 2021
Shortly after the press conference, reporters asked President Joe Biden about vaccine misinformation on Facebook. Asked about a message to social media companies, Biden replied, “They kill people.”
—Pierre Alexandre (@PeterAlexander) July 16, 2021
Facebook announced in February its intention to crack down on vaccine misinformation. The company said the accounts would be subject to removal if they spread false or debunked claims. The social media platform acknowledged that “there is still a long way to go” but that it “is focused on supporting health leaders and officials in their work to vaccinate billions of people against COVID-19 “.
These bogus claims include “denying that COVID exists, claiming that bogus cures are actually the way to solve COVID and not vaccination, denouncing vaccines and denouncing doctors as somehow venal or motivated by other factors when ‘They recommend vaccines,’ said Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, which conducted the research on the 12 individuals whose accounts made headlines.
Fox News, for its part, has spread vaccine hesitation on its airwaves. Prominent figures including Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham have attacked the Biden administration’s vaccine rollout. Carlson called Biden’s latest approach of launching a “door-to-door” vaccination campaign the “biggest scandal” of his life, and Ingraham said it was “scary stuff.” Carlson also fueled vaccine skepticism, once alleging unspecified forces were “lying” to the public about the shots.
COVID-19 continues to spread widely among unvaccinated people in the United States, CDC director Rachelle Walensky saying on Friday that “this is becoming an unvaccinated pandemic.”
About 59% of American adults were fully immunized on Friday, according to data compiled by the New York Times. About 67% of adults have received at least one dose of COVID-19.
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