Biden backtracks on his Facebook criticism, says he meant top users spreading vaccine misinfo were “killing people”, and urges Facebook to reduce misinformation
Biden walks back attack over vaccine lies Cat Zakrzewski / Washington Post : The Technology 202: Facebook isn't sharing how many Americans viewed vaccine misinformation New York Times : 'Facebook isn't killing people': Biden softens his attack over vaccine misinformation. Washington Post : Biden clarifies comments about Facebook ‘killing people’ with vaccine misinformation CNN : Biden backs away from his claim that Facebook is ‘killing people’ by allowing Covid misinformation RT : 'Facebook isn't killing people': Biden walks back own comments, insists platform must do more to fight vaccine ‘misinformation’ Paola Rosa-Aquino / New York Magazine : Biden: Never Mind That Time I Accused Facebook of Mass Murder Jacob Knutson / Axios : Biden clarifies vaccine comments: “Facebook isn't killing people” Joe Biden / The Guardian : Biden says Facebook isn't ‘killing people’ but Covid misinformation causes harm - video Aaron Blake / Washington Post : Biden's ‘over his skis’ moment on Facebook Maureen Groppe / USA Today : Biden reverses course on Facebook, says platform isn't ‘killing people’ with vaccine misinformation Tweets: Sheera Frenkel / @sheeraf : There was a lot of debate this weekend about why Facebook couldn't give Biden the data on Covid misinfo. The problem is that measuring misinformation is complicated, and FB data scientists have said they are a year out (or more) from being able to do it: https://www.nytimes.com/... Julia Carrie Wong / @juliacarriew : One thing to try to resist w/ the Biden v Facebook anti-vaxx debate is Facebook's concerted efforts to keep everyone's memory incredibly short. Facebook was actively promoting anti-vaxxer groups to people searching for vaccine information in *2019* https://www.theguardian.com/ ... Jeff Kosseff / @jkosseff : Yes, everyone hates Facebook. We get that already. But what should it look like? And how do we get there in light of legal, technical, and operational constraints? That's a much more difficult and important discussion. Makena Kelly / @kellymakena : Asked if he would hold FB accountable for misinfo, Biden says: “I'm not trying to hold people accountable. I'm trying to make people look at themselves in the mirror. Think about that misinformation going to your son, your daughter, your relative ... That's all I'm asking.” Oliver Darcy / @oliverdarcy : This is ... quite a walk back. https://twitter.com/... Oliver Willis / @owillis : Facebook to advertisers: we can microtarget anything with a pulse, even the dead sometimes Facebook to the govt: finding misinformation is hard you guys, pay no attention to the billions we have in the bank we could spend on this bull. shit. https://twitter.com/... Ted Cruz / @tedcruz : 🚨Breaking news🚨 From now on, all Facebook posts will end with: “I'm Joe Biden, and I approve this message.” Mark Pitcavage / @egavactip : “On Facebook alone, the dozen are responsible for 73% of all anti-vaccine content...And 95% of the Covid misinformation reported on these platforms were not removed.” https://www.theguardian.com/ ... @nicktrebla : Majority of Covid misinformation came from 12 people, report finds. These 12 people influenced 59 million gullible followers like Barnaby Joyce, Boris Johnston and Donald Trump https://www.theguardian.com/ ... @zerohedge : *PSAKI: WE ARE NOT IN A WAR WITH FACEBOOK, BUT WITH VIRUS Is Facebook sending White House censorship phone calls straight to voicemail? Dr. Siva Vaidhyanathan / @sivavaid : This problem is not going to get easier. Even if a thousand social scientists had this data we would be no closer to a full view. This is just a lot more complicated than most people thing. Why? Because the problem with Facebook is Facebook. https://twitter.com/... Dr. Siva Vaidhyanathan🗽🤘 🏽 / @s … : Take this from one of the OG Facebook critics: Making it about Facebook is a waste of precious time. No one who runs Facebook cares about real people in the real world. We are data to them. Brooke Binkowski / @brooklynmarie : Not to mention white supremacists have been trying to form a global alliance for decades. Facebook algos and groups did that for them https://twitter.com/... Lance Ulanoff / @lanceulanoff : I fully expected this clarification https://www.wsj.com/... Donie O'Sullivan / @donie : This comment will surely irk many Facebook employees who have been working on the company's efforts to tackle Covid misinformation for more than a year. https://twitter.com/... Dr. Siva Vaidhyanathan🗽🤘 🏽 / @s … : I have sympathy for Murthy and Biden as they push Facebook to crack down on the anti-vax stuff. But it's not going to happen — and certainly not in time to save this country from the next (current?) wave. Don't make it about Facebook. Make it about schools. De-escalate. @blackamazon : And part of that short memory is that Facebook, the Senate and the misinfo space and the Democratic safety space ? We're told this in 2016 when it was targeting Black people and in other countries about MASSACRES they knew it had consequences https://twitter.com/... Jesse Lehrich / @jesselehrich : “At the start of the pandemic, a group of data scientists at Facebook held a meeting with execs to ask for resources to help measure the prevalence of misinformation about Covid-19... The execs never approved the resources & the team was never told why” https://www.nytimes.com/... Sen. Marsha Blackburn / @marshablackburn : Biden needs to release every email and contact that his administration has had with Facebook regarding their crusade to monitor our speech. https://www.foxnews.com/... @anandwrites : A few years ago, Mark Zuckerberg said he wanted to end all disease. Today, he is one of the chief obstacles to a healthy, vaccinated world. This isn't a contradiction. Billionaires like him use do-gooding pledges to buy the space to do profitable harm. https://podcasts.apple.com/... Jeff Kosseff / @jkosseff : I'd love to see a media outlet ask 50 gov officials/commentators to describe what social media should look like in an ideal world. My guess is that you would get *very* different answers, but it would be more productive than the current discussion. Jane Chung / @orientaljanedoe : Did someone get a call from Mark? Sheryl? https://twitter.com/... Thomas Massie / @repthomasmassie : The White House has admitted to working with Facebook to track, flag, and block certain content and content creators. Which begs the question: how involved is the government in Facebook's efforts to track and flag VIEWERS of content the government hasn't approved? https://twitter.com/... Comfortably Smug / @comfortablysmug : So Biden's statement on misinformation was misinformation https://twitter.com/... Edward Ongweso Jr / @bigblackjacobin : If I was Biden I would simply double down on the accusation that Facebook is killing people and not walk it back the next business day Jason Kint / @jason_kint : I'll bite. Take the 2019 German federal cartel office decision vs Facebook and apply globally. No access to any of my data outside of the app itself - and no sharing across their apps. That will solve a whole lot of problems. Trust me. https://twitter.com/... David Carroll / @profcarroll : There is no viable economic mechanic to punish Facebook for its downstream social and economic harms such as vaccine disinfo because its primary revenue stream derives from small and medium sized businesses that wholly depend on Facebook for customer acquisition. Shelby Talcott / @shelbytalcott : Psaki doesn't directly answer when asked whether the administration plans to make public what it's flagging as misinformation for Facebook. Representative Mike Loychik / @mikeloychik : The only thing Facebook is killing is free speech. Zamaan Qureshi / @zamaan_qureshi : There are going to be folks at the White House who are going to be pissed about this statement. Some at WH want Facebook to share with them how much *misinformation* about vaccines people have seen. Repeat pressure from the WH on FB may have forced that data. https://twitter.com/... Julia Carrie Wong / @juliacarriew : Does Facebook kill people? Eh, who's to say (besides the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar)? But it sure as hell does its level best to bring together the people who kill other people and help them find new recruits and new targets. Julia Carrie Wong / @juliacarriew : You can't pick up a telephone book and automatically find the names and contact info of 1000 people who are susceptible to anti-vaxx propaganda, or white nationalism, or QAnon, or boogaloo violence. But Facebook will do that for you, usually for free, without you even asking. Erick Erickson / @ewerickson : If the White House's demands for Facebook and misinformation were met, all the people who said COVID came from a lab would have been banned a year ago when now that is increasingly the consensus. Dylan Byers / @dylanbyers : Awkard position for the pundits who, emboldened by the president's initial words, went out and said: “Biden is right, Facebook is killing people...” https://twitter.com/... Kaitlan Collins / @kaitlancollins : Asked whether the platform has done enough so far to blunt the spread of misinformation, Biden says, “To be completely honest with you, I don't know that they did anything today, up to over the weekend, I don't think they had. But I don't know.” @wsj : President Biden's attack on Facebook on Friday followed months of mounting private frustration inside his administration over the social-media giant's handling of vaccine misinformation, according to U.S. officials https://www.wsj.com/... Jason Kint / @jason_kint : if your worldview is Facebook and White House cycle was “just a distraction” or White House just needed their Crowd Tangle account approved, it won't end well. Facebook will continue to take ten steps backward and a few steps forward.... it's a leadership and biz model issue. Elie Mystal / @elienyc : LOL @ Biden figuratively telling Facebook to “grow up” https://twitter.com/... Allison Harris / @allison__news : “We are not in a war or a battle with Facebook,” @PressSec says the war is instead with coronavirus, after President Biden cleaned up his comments Friday that it's not Facebook killing people, but the 12 people responsible for spreading 65% of the misinformation on the platform. Chris Megerian / @chrismegerian : “We're not in a war or a battle with Facebook,” Jen Psaki says, adding that the real enemy is the virus. @adamserwer : It's both true that facebook can ban whomever it wants from its platform without running afoul of the First Amendment, and for the same reason, the Biden can't tell them what or who to ban https://twitter.com/... Alex Heath / @alexeheath : you shouldn't take me calling you a murderer personally https://t.co/ca34gTd000 Alex Heath / @alexeheath : The WH gets its weekend of rage at FB in the news, pegged to headline-friendly Biden “killing people” comment, after missing its vaccination goal Then Biden gets to quietly walk back on Monday You can even hate FB and see how manufactured this news cycle was Will Oremus / @willoremus : Not to say that the concerns are entirely unjustified or irrelevant, I just feel like Biden's instantly infamous “they're killing people” quote is probably best understood as more of an exasperated “c'mon, man!” than an attempt at coercing censorship. Alex Heath / @alexeheath : what a ridiculous news cycle this has been https://twitter.com/... @therecount : President Biden clarifies his comment saying Facebook is “killing people”: “My hope is that Facebook, instead of taking it personally ... that they would do something about the outrageous misinformation about the vaccine.” https://twitter.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
Biden's criticism of Facebook predates the current dispute: his campaign had already pressed Zuckerberg to strengthen misinformation rules in a 2020 open letter and petition. Facebook's earlier reversal of its imminent-harm standard had also become part of the COVID misinformation debate, as covered in reporting on the policy shift.
The clarification narrows the administration's immediate target to leading spreaders while preserving its demand that Facebook do more. It matters because Facebook's public response, criticized a day earlier as an evasive integrity-team defense, is now being tested against a more specific enforcement expectation.
First-order effects
- Facebook remains under White House pressure to reduce vaccine misinformation, but the administration now directs its sharpest blame at the users distributing it.
- Top accounts spreading vaccine misinformation become the focal point for Facebook's enforcement decisions and public explanation of those decisions.
Second-order effects
- Facebook's integrity team faces greater pressure to show that its rules and enforcement can limit the reach of prominent misinformation spreaders, not merely state platform policies.
- The dispute shifts attention toward evidence of exposure and reach, an area the related coverage says Facebook had not publicly quantified for Americans viewing vaccine misinformation.
Third-order effects
- If this framing persists, political accountability for misinformation will increasingly center on platforms' distribution and enforcement choices rather than on a binary question of whether platforms themselves are responsible for every post.
- The episode reinforces a broader fight over platform intervention thresholds, with public officials pressing distribution platforms to act before content meets a narrow harm standard.
The trend: Online misinformation policy is moving toward scrutiny of how platforms amplify and police high-reach accounts, not only whether they remove individual posts.