Why Biden has eased up on Facebook over COVID misinformation
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[February 03, 2022]
By Nandita Bose
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When U.S. President
Joe Biden accused Facebook of "killing people" by spreading vaccine lies
in July, many experts and researchers hoped it marked the beginning of a
White House battle against a flood of misinformation about the
coronavirus pandemic coursing through the United States.
Six months later, the deluge of misinformation continues and entities
combating harmful information want the White House to do more. COVID-19
deaths recently hit their highest in almost a year, with over 2,600
people dying on average each day. U.S. studies show the unvaccinated are
dying at much higher rates than those with jabs and boosters.
"The problem of vaccine misinformation was big a year ago and it is
still big now," said David Lazer, who co-leads the Covid States Project.
Fighting misinformation "requires continued focus and attention and
effort," he said.
After slamming Facebook on July 16, Biden never again publicly accused
Facebook or another company by name of spreading misinformation,
according to a Reuters analysis of the president's speeches and remarks
since that day. Biden has delivered 24 speeches on COVID specifically,
including townhalls, since he called out Facebook, the analysis shows.
Interviews with 11 White House sources, experts and researchers who have
worked with the Biden administration on this topic show that top White
House aides feel Biden has few legal options to force social media
platforms to comply and the administration has not been able to settle
on a strategy to rein in Silicon Valley. Several pieces of legislation
to hold social media companies responsible have stalled.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Feb/03/images/ads/current/lincolnheating_lda_LUAL_2021.png)
Biden also did not issue an executive order or proclamation to combat
misinformation as he has done nearly three dozen times on other pandemic
issues, according to a Reuters tally of White House records.
A dozen misinformation superspreaders identified by the White House and
the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) last year, still hold over
40 accounts on Meta Platforms Inc-owned Facebook, Alphabet's YouTube and
other social media companies, with millions of followers, as of
December.
The White House "has been in regular touch with social media platforms,
as well as leaders and media outlets about the critical importance of
ensuring that they do not peddle misinformation," a White House official
said. These meetings, the official said, include discussing the work
such entities are doing to combat harmful information, and holding them
accountable.
A majority of healthcare workers, in a January survey conducted by the
COVID States Project, a U.S. research group trying to understand why so
many Americans do not want to get vaccinated, said vaccine
misinformation is "the single most important factor influencing
unvaccinated patients decision not to get the COVID-19 vaccine."
Social media - particularly Facebook - remains one of the most commonly
cited sources of misinformation negatively impacting patients, the
healthcare workers in the survey said.
A Meta spokesperson declined to comment but the company previously said
it had removed more than 24 million pieces of COVID-19 content globally
and displayed warnings on more than 195 million pieces of COVID-related
content on Facebook for violating its policies.
A YouTube spokesperson said the company has terminated the channels of
several well-known spreaders of vaccine misinformation and since October
2020, it had removed over 130,000 videos for COVID-19 vaccine
misinformation.
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![](../images/020322pics/news_c39.jpg)
President Joe Biden speaks at an event to reignite the ‘Cancer
Moonshot’ initiative with a goal to reduce cancer death by 50
percent over the next 25 years, in the East Room at the White House
in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 2, 2022. REUTERS/Cheriss
May/File Photo
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Feb/03/images/ads/current/xamis_lda_LUAL_2016.png) THE SECTION 230 PROBLEM
Biden has no easy legal options because Section 230 of the
Communications Decency Act shields social media companies from being
liable for what users post on their platforms, according to White
House sources, experts and researchers who have worked with the
White House on this topic.
"The administration...is in fact far too cozy with tech companies,
there is of course an institutional resistance at the civil servant
level," said Imran Ahmed, chief executive of the Center for
Countering Digital Hate, who engaged with the White House last year
on the issue. "It poses a serious problem when you're seeking to
legislate and go into combat against companies."
Tech companies were some of the top donors to Biden's election
campaign and now former Silicon Valley insiders serve in key
positions in the administration.
Two White House sources, who worked on the issue last year, said the
reason Biden backed off was due to few legal options and
disagreement inside the White House over how tough to be on tech
companies.
"The most that can be done is urging the companies to take action
and we did a lot of that last year," one of the sources said.
Top officials at the White House held a series of combative meetings
with social media companies, and Facebook in particular, leading up
to last July to get the company and others to act on vaccine
misinformation. Press Secretary Jen Psaki and Surgeon General Vivek
Murthy, among others, also criticized the platforms publicly.
The growing pressure culminated with Biden's off-the-cuff comments
on July 16. Since then, Biden has refrained from blaming social
media companies directly by name.
Biden addressed harmful information on social media platforms four
times since July 16. Twice he walked back his comments on Facebook:
he said "Facebook isn't killing people" on July 19 and added "I
wasn't attacking Facebook" on July 22.
He also mentioned the word "misinformation" in the context of it
being a problem, without mentioning the role specific social media
companies play, six times since July 16.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Feb/03/images/ads/current/guzzardos_lda_LUAL_2017.png)
A Surgeon General's advisory about health misinformation in the
United States, issued after Biden's July remark, focuses on how
communities can combat it, not the companies spreading it. The
recent controversy involving Spotify's role in spreading COVID
misinformation, drew boilerplate criticism from the White House,
saying the companies should do more to stop such content.
Hany Farid, a computer science professor and misinformation
researcher at the University of California at Berkeley, urged the
White House's domestic policy team last year to do more to tackle
misinformation.
Farid said he has not seen a "coherent or consistent message" from
the White House and wants to see more leadership on the topic
publicly. "I have not seen a message from the White House... to
Congress to get serious about this."
(Reporting by Nandita Bose in Washington; Editing by Heather Timmons
and Lisa Shumaker)
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