Twelve attorneys are calling for Facebook and Twitter to remove anti-vaxxer disinformation.
Like Trump’s false claims of voter fraud, it is time for the anti-vaccination disinformation to be gone, says 12 attorney generals. The lawyers are pushing for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to reinforce their platform’s regulations and guidelines against spreading wrong information on their social media platforms.
The lawyers say that the false anti-vaccination information is more targeted towards communities of color, particularly Black Americans, as Black Americans have been the most affected by COVID-19.
The lawyers’ group includes Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, who joined alongside the attorneys general of Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island.
The group sent a letter to Zuckerberg and Dorsey, who are expected to go into a joint House committee hearing on Thursday to testify about the impact of misinformation and extremism on social media.
“The spread of misinformation about COVID vaccines over social media sites like Facebook and Twitter could be detrimental to the national effort to end the coronavirus pandemic,” Herring said. “Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms must take this seriously and enforce their guidelines for restricting or removing disinformation about the COVID vaccine so we can return to normal life as quickly and safely as possible.” The letter adds, “According to a recent report by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, so-called ‘anti-vaxxer’ accounts on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter reach more than 59 million followers.”
