US Democratic Representative Adam Schiff on Thursday asked Facebook and Amazon.com Inc. to provide a more thorough explanation of their efforts to reduce the spread of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation.
In a statement after sending the letter, Schiff, chairman of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, said in a statement after sending the letter, “Despite some concrete and positive steps previously taken, these companies have received additional answers about the exponential and dangerous spread of misinformation to both the public and Congress.” have to give.” companies.
US technology companies have come under fire Biden The administration and other critics have called for the alarming spread of vaccine misinformation slowing down vaccination in the country and increasing hostility towards vaccines.
Other companies, including Twitter and alphabet Google And youtube, has also faced criticism for allowing false information COVID-19To spread, including vaccines.
An Amazon spokesperson said that the company is “continuously evaluating the books we list to ensure that they comply with our content guidelines, and as an added service to customers, are available on relevant search results pages.” At the top we link to CDC advice on COVID and safety measures.”
Facebook said in a statement that since the start of the pandemic it “removed more than 20 million pieces of COVID misinformation, labeled more than 190 million pieces of COVID content as rated by our fact-checking partners”. , and connected more than 2 billion people with reliable information through tools like our COVID Information Center.”
The company said it has removed “more than 3,000 accounts, pages and groups for repeatedly violating our COVID-19 and vaccine misinformation policies and will continue to enforce our policies and provide tools and Will offer reminders to those who use our platform for vaccination.”
Facebook said last month it had removed dozens of vaccine misinformation “superspreaders”.
© Thomson Reuters 2021
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