President Joe Biden is being thrashed after walking back a claim he made saying that social media giant Facebook was “killing people.”
Biden, who suggested that the tech platform was “killing people” with COVID-19 misinformation retreated from his original stance – perhaps after being instructed to do so by Facebook, who has essentially been on the DNC’s payroll for quite some time now.
Multiple reporters and pundits hit President Biden for walking back his comments on Facebook.
Biden instead narrowed down his targets to a dozen spreaders of what the government has deemed harmful misinformation about the coronavirus and the vaccines against it.
“Facebook pointed out that most of the disinformation came from 12 individuals,” Biden said. “I was asked, what is happening … “Facebook isn’t killing people. These 12 people are killing people. My hope is that they would do something about misinformation — outrageous misinformation about vaccines.”
NBC’s Dylan Byers pointed out that it was “Not the administration’s finest hour.”
A few others, like The Atlantic’s David A. Graham and conservative CNN commentator Scott Jennings, wondered if the White House was guilty of the kind of “misinformation” the administration mentioned on Friday.
“So was the previous statement…misinformation?” Graham asked.
Facebook released a defensive statement following Biden’s initial accusation, arguing that their platform “is helping save lives.”
“We will not be distracted by accusations which aren’t supported by the facts,” Facebook said.
“The fact is that more than 2 billion people have viewed authoritative information about COVID-19 and vaccines on Facebook, which is more than any other place on the internet. More than 3.3 million Americans have also used our vaccine finder tool to find out where and how to get a vaccine. The facts show that Facebook is helping save lives. Period.”
Biden’s retraction of his original claim comes amid a recently unveiled White House partnership with Big Tech companies to crack down on so-called coronavirus “misinformation,” after his administration fell well short of their vaccine goal.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the administration is “making sure social media platforms are aware of the latest narratives,” confirming that the Democrats are using the platforms to push their instructed narratives.
Psaki also noted that is the Biden administration’s stance that users spreading “misinformation” on one social media platform, should be banned and silenced across all platforms.
Critics said the effort would do little more than hinder free speech and pointed out Facebook’s checkered history on identifying misinformation, such as when it flagged posts about the coronavirus lab-leak theory.
One Republican Rep. Bryon Donalds, said in a new interview he was “disgusted” by the recent rhetoric coming from the Biden administration about battling so-called coronavirus “misinformation” on social media.
“It’s sick,” Donalds said. “I think Jen Psaki is forgetting what the First Amendment of the United States Constitution actually stands for … It says the government – the government, mind you, which includes the White House, which includes her – cannot infringe on free speech, period, full stop. Say no more.”
“The fact that the White House thinks it’s OK to collude with social media companies is outrageous to me,” Donalds added.
“The fact that they think that it’s OK because we have to deal with a pandemic or people getting vaccinated, that they do not have the wherewithal to just gently push or nudge or force social media companies to pull that information is outrageous to the front of freedom everywhere, especially here in the United States.”
Author: Elijah James
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