Mark Zuckerberg, Chairman and CEO of Facebook.
Erin Scott | Reuters
A coalition of 12 attorneys general on Wednesday called on Facebook and Twitter to enforce their community guidelines and rid their services of misinformation spread through accounts promoting ideas against vaccines.
“Misinformation disseminated through your platforms has increased vaccine reluctance, which will slow economic recovery and, most importantly, cause even more unnecessary deaths,” the Coalition of Attorneys General wrote in a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and the CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey.
The coalition points out that only 12 accounts and their associated organizations are responsible for 65% of public anti-vaccine content on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. In particular, the reports are targeting people of color to deter them from receiving the Covid-19 vaccines, the letter said.
The letter comes a day before Zuckerberg, Dorsey and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai are due to testify before the House’s Energy and Trade Committee on the subject of misinformation about their services.
In a statement, a Facebook spokesperson noted that the company has removed more than 2 million misinformation about Covid-19 and vaccines since February and “is now putting out labels for every post that deals with vaccines.”
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