White House press secretary Jen Psaki admitted Thursday that the Biden administration is âflagging problematic posts for Facebook.â
Psaki outlined how the administration was working with social media companies to stop the spread of misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic during a news conference.
âThis is a big issue of misinformation, specifically on the pandemic,â Psaki said.
âWeâve increased disinformation research and tracking within the surgeon generalâs office, weâre flagging problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation.
âWe are working with doctors and medical professionals to connected medical experts who are popular with their audiences with accurate information and boost trusted content.â
During the briefing, a journalist asked if the press secretary was concerned about the âpoliticizationâ of the information surrounding aspects of COVID-19, like vaccines.
âWe have to be very careful, and we are mindful of being quite careful of not politicizing the effectiveness of vaccines,â Psaki said.
âWe have empowered, engaged, funded local voices because they are often the most trusted voices.â
Psakiâs comments bring to the forefront Republican concerns that social media platforms are suppressing conservative voices and opinions online.
Facebook and other platforms have frequently hidden behind Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act to remove posts they deem offensive.
Facebookâs community standards allow the platform to take down âmisinformation and unverifiable rumors that contribute to the risk of imminent violence or physical harm,â Bloomberg reported.
âFalse news is harmful to our community, it makes the world less informed, and it erodes trust,â Facebook wrote in a misinformation blog post.
In particular, it has flagged what it deems to be misinformation surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.
âThis includes claims such as: COVID-19 is man-made or manufactured, Vaccines are not effective at preventing the disease they are meant to protect against, Itâs safer to get the disease than to get the vaccine, Vaccines are toxic, dangerous or cause autism,â Facebook wrote in a news release.
Emails between Facebook and the Biden campaign revealed tension over misinformation during the lead-up to the 2020 election, CNN reported.
Some Democrats are concerned that misinformation on the platform may hurt their chances in the midterm elections.
âSome of the more systemic concerns that we have really have not been addressed at all,â a top former Biden campaign aide said.
âIf the primary news source in America is one that is spewing people basically nonsense based on simply whether that nonsense is more likely to be read or go viral, that has profound effects on the entire political system.â
Now it seems the Biden administration is policing misinformation on the social media platform.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
