The social media giants Facebook and Twitter are accused of not doing much to stop the spread of vaccine hoaxes on their respective platforms.
Attorneys General from 12 US states wrote Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to discuss his concerns. The states participating in the letter are Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Virginia.
According to the attorney general from the Democratic Party, anti-vaxxers have used the two platforms to exaggerate the risks of vaccination.
Anti-Vaxer Controls 65% of Anti-Vaccine Content
Mentioned in the letter, anti-vaxxers control 65% of public anti-vaccine content on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The number of followers on all platforms and Youtube reaches more than 59 million users.
Misinformation also targets black and other communities of color where vaccination rates are lagging behind.
“Given the dependence of anti-vaxxers on your platform. You uniquely need to stop the spread of misinformation about the Covid-19 vaccine which poses an immediate threat to the health security funds of millions of Americans in our state and will extend the path to recovery,” said the Attorney General.
They also called on the two social media giants to continue to affirm community guidelines, by removing or flagging misinformation about vaccines.
Facebook and Twitter Have Erased Millions of Misinformation Content
For information, Facebook spokesperson Dani Lever said that his party had removed millions of misinformation regarding Covid-19 and vaccines. Facebook is also trying to combat vaccine doubts by continually advising users to get information directly from health authorities.
Twitter also claims to have deleted more than 22,400 tweets related to policies regarding Covid-19 uploads. The platform also prioritized removing content that could cause harm in the real world.
Meanwhile, the bosses of the social networking platform want to testify to two sub-committees of the House of Representatives on fighting disinformation online. The meeting on Thursday local time plans to bring together the Chief Executive of Google parent company Alphabet Inc Sundar Pichai along with Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey.
