In a letter to Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, the Democratic attorneys general said
"anti-vaxxers" lacking medical expertise and often motivated by
financial gain have used the platforms to downplay the danger of COVID-19 and
exaggerate the risks of vaccination.
They called on both companies to enforce their own community
guidelines by removing or flagging vaccine misinformation.
The letter said anti-vaxxers control 65 percent of public
anti-vaccine content on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and have more than 59
million followers on those platforms and Google's YouTube.
It also said some misinformation targets Blacks and other
communities of colour where vaccination rates are lagging.
"Given anti-vaxxers' reliance on your platforms, you
are uniquely positioned to prevent the spread of misinformation about
coronavirus vaccines that poses a direct threat to the health and safety of
millions of Americans in our states and that will prolong our road to
recovery," the letter said.
Facebook spokeswoman Dani Lever said the company has removed
millions of pieces of COVID-19 and vaccine misinformation, and tries to combat
"vaccine hesitancy" by regularly directing users to reliable
information from health authorities.
Twitter said it has removed more than 22,400 tweets in
connection with its policy toward COVID-19 posts, and prioritises removing
content that could cause "real-world" harm.
Wednesday's letter was signed by the attorneys general of
Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York,
North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
Zuckerman, Dorsey, and Sundar Pichai, the chief executive of
Google parent Alphabet, are scheduled to testify on Thursday before two House
of Representatives subcommittees about combating online disinformation.
The coronavirus pandemic has sickened more than 124 million
people worldwide, and caused more than 2.7 million deaths.
© Reuters
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