Facebook Refutes President Biden Claim, Says It Should Not Be Blamed For US Failing To Meet Vaccine Targets

On Friday, President Joe Biden said that social media networks are “killing people” by spreading misinformation about coronavirus vaccines. 

What Happened: Facebook, Inc FB on Saturday defended itself against the remarks made by President Joe Biden that social media platforms are “killing people” by allowing Covid vaccine misinformation to proliferate on their services, Reuters reports. 

In a blog post, Facebook Vice President Guy Rosen has said that “President Biden’s goal was for 70% of Americans to be vaccinated by July 4. Facebook is not the reason this goal was missed.”

“The data shows that 85% of Facebook users in the U.S. have been or want to be vaccinated against COVID-19,” Rosen said.

Facebook’s response comes after the president was asked what his message was to companies like Facebook with respect to Covid misinformation. Biden responded: “They’re killing people.” 

“I mean they really, look, the only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated, and that’s — they’re killing people,” the president said. 

Facebook has introduced rules against making specific false claims about COVID-19 and vaccines for the virus. Instead, the company says it provides people with reliable information on these topics.

Why It Matters: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, deaths from Covid-19 are increasing again in the U.S. as the delta variant affects largely unvaccinated pockets of the country.

Ever since the pandemic has hit the US, misinformation about Covid 19 has spread on various social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter Inc TWTR, and Alphabet Inc’s GOOGL YouTube. 

Many researchers and lawmakers across the country have long accused Facebook of failing to police harmful content on its platforms.

The Covid 19 cases in the U.S. are up 70% over the previous week, and deaths are up 26%, with outbreaks occurring in parts of the country with low vaccination rates.