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Facebook rejects Joe Biden's claim it's 'killing people' with misinformation, saying vaccine hesitancy among its users has dropped by 50%
Business Insider ^ | Jul 18, 2021 | Isobel Asher Hamilton

Posted on 07/19/2021 7:33:17 PM PDT by DoodleBob

Facebook is firing back at Joe Biden for claiming the social media site is responsible for vaccine hesitancy. President Joe Biden said Friday that social media platforms like Facebook are "killing people" by allowing vaccine misinformation to spread.

Guy Rosen, Facebook's vice president of integrity, published the company's full rebuttal in a blog post on Saturday.

"The fact is that vaccine acceptance among Facebook users in the US has increased. These and other facts tell a very different story to the one promoted by the administration in recent days," Rosen said.

Rosen said Facebook has been working with Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Maryland since April 2020 to survey its users, with 70 million responses collected so far. "For people in the US on Facebook, vaccine hesitancy has declined by 50%; and they are becoming more accepting of vaccines every day," said Rosen.

Rosen also specifically took aim at Biden's goal to get 70% of American adults vaccinated by July 4. "The data shows that 85% of Facebook users in the US have been or want to be vaccinated against COVID-19. President Biden's goal was for 70% of Americans to be vaccinated by July 4. Facebook is not the reason this goal was missed," Rosen said.

As of Sunday, 56% of adults in the US have received vaccinations.

Facebook previously told Insider in a statement the Biden administration was using it as a "scapegoat." In his blogpost Rosen outlined the various pro-vaccine initiatives Facebook has undertaken, including introducing specialized rules on misinformation around vaccines and setting up vaccine pop-up clinics.Although it's hard to measure the direct impact of vaccine misinformation, in March The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) published a report that said most anti-vaxx misinformation is only spread by a dozen accounts. These twelve accounts have a combined following of 59 million people worldwide according to the CCDH, with Facebook making up the biggest chunk of that following.

Among those twelve accounts is Robert F Kennedy Jr, John F Kennedy's nephew. Facebook took down Kennedy's Instagram account in February, but not his Facebook page.

CCDH CEO Imran Ahmed told Insider in February that to properly crack down on vaccine misinformation, Facebook needs to fully deplatform big-name misinformation spreaders like Kennedy.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: andagain; bigbrother; facebook; vaccines
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1 posted on 07/19/2021 7:33:17 PM PDT by DoodleBob
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To: upchuck
Ping...I know this data are allegedly from a survey, but it's plausible that they obtained these percentages from 'monitoring.'

If the nation is 56% vaccinated and FB members are 85% vaccinated, that tells you a LOT.

2 posted on 07/19/2021 7:34:43 PM PDT by DoodleBob (Gravity's waiting period is about 9.8 m/s^2)
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To: DoodleBob

How does Facebook know the vaccine status of its users?


3 posted on 07/19/2021 7:40:09 PM PDT by rightwingcrazy (;-,)
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To: rightwingcrazy

Does a bear s—t in the woods?


4 posted on 07/19/2021 7:41:08 PM PDT by George from New England
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To: rightwingcrazy
To be fair, the story points to polls being taken.

I also suspect many FB users splatter their personal details everywhere, because, ya know, it's all about them.

That said, you raise a good question...

5 posted on 07/19/2021 7:42:16 PM PDT by DoodleBob (Gravity's waiting period is about 9.8 m/s^2)
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To: George from New England
That was my college's chant whenever Alabama came to town.


6 posted on 07/19/2021 7:43:40 PM PDT by DoodleBob (Gravity's waiting period is about 9.8 m/s^2)
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To: DoodleBob
vaccine hesitancy among its users has dropped by 50%

ROTFLMAO. That's because they censored or banned that may people into silence already.

7 posted on 07/19/2021 7:47:24 PM PDT by Pollard
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To: DoodleBob

Noted that they mentioned polls. But they said “data shows” rather than “data suggests”. That means that they’re either spying or lying.


8 posted on 07/19/2021 7:50:38 PM PDT by rightwingcrazy (;-,)
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To: rightwingcrazy

I’ll take Spying for $300, Alex.


9 posted on 07/19/2021 7:52:31 PM PDT by DoodleBob (Gravity's waiting period is about 9.8 m/s^2)
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To: Pollard

“ROTFLMAO. That’s because they censored or banned that many people into silence already.”

that’s exactly right!


10 posted on 07/19/2021 8:09:55 PM PDT by catnipman (Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)
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To: DoodleBob

What? Bidet spoke the truth?


11 posted on 07/19/2021 8:16:15 PM PDT by dynachrome ("I will not be reconstructed, and I do not give a damn.")
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To: rightwingcrazy

most people who are vaccinated are trumpeting the fact they are vaccinated

so probably from their facebook postings


12 posted on 07/19/2021 8:30:14 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not Averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: DoodleBob

deflection. FB & the rest of Big Tech have been censoring covid info for months.

plus there’s this small matter!

29 Oct 2020: Washington Times: Zuckerberg paying for election operations, vote counting across U.S.
by James Varney
Facebook magnate Mark Zuckerberg and his wife gave a nonprofit $400 million to pay election workers, train poll workers and rent polling locations for the Nov. 3 vote in various states.

The Zuckerbergs’ largesse is an unprecedented private expenditure on a process long held to be an exclusively public operation and has spurred at least nine lawsuits challenging the effort by the Center for Tech and Civil Life...

“We’ve invited billionaires into the counting room and it will undermine the integrity of our elections. It’s unprecedented,” said Phill Kline, director of the Amistad Project, an initiative started by the conservative Thomas More Society to defend civil liberties.

“We are headed toward a situation in which Big Tech controls the flow of information and the election process. These are the first things any oligarchy wants to control when it takes power.”...

Among the group’s top directors are three people who were previously cyberspace operatives with the liberal grassroots group New Organizing Institute, according to the nonprofit’s website...

More than 2,100 local election jurisdictions applied for grants that can be used for drive-through voting, poll worker recruitment, hazard pay, training and polling place rental, among other items, according to the website...
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/oct/29/zuckerberg-paying-election-operations-vote-countin/


13 posted on 07/19/2021 8:35:16 PM PDT by MAGAthon
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To: Secret Agent Man

What a phony confrontation. FB was a leader among the “social” sites in promoting Hiden in 2020, and in running interference for him on the Covid vaccination promotion after the election. They are allies engaging in a manufactured public display.


14 posted on 07/19/2021 8:36:22 PM PDT by Robwin ( )
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To: DoodleBob

Vaccine hesitation? Bwa ha ha

How about

THE VACCINE INDUSTRY IS PURE EVIL AND FRAUDULENT

THE IMMUNIZATION THEORY IS GARBAGE. LIES. ALWAYS HAS BEEN

https://phoreveryoung.wordpress.com/2015/05/14/the-worst-cover-up-in-the-history-of-the-world-vaccinations-are-monkey-business/


15 posted on 07/19/2021 8:37:28 PM PDT by Truthoverpower (Arizona !!!! Now the TRUMP TRAIN is getting back on TRACK ! TRUTH! FREEDOM ! LIBERTY! )
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To: DoodleBob

Kabuki.


16 posted on 07/19/2021 8:40:00 PM PDT by dead (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_vFiUUcBkc)
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To: DoodleBob

“...Facebook needs to fully deplatform big-name misinformation spreaders like Kennedy.”

Absolutely! Ve must keep zee truth from zee people.


17 posted on 07/19/2021 9:15:09 PM PDT by Captain7seas (Don't resist, after all you will get a free shower.)
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To: DoodleBob

Holy Cow Feces, Batman! It looks like Facebook is “not” a state actor after all. As you can clearly see here, Biden piddled on their shoes and they responded indignantly! Ergo, they are a completely private company doing private company things and cannot be considered an arm of the government in any way, shape, or form.

Unless, of course, you believe that this whole new controversy is a blatant attempt to make precisely that point with an eye on Trump’s lawsuit by giving big tech a fig leaf to hide behind — in which case you can bet that time media will call you are conspiracy theorist.


18 posted on 07/19/2021 9:31:25 PM PDT by Ronin (White privilege is not having to fake your own hate crimes. (HT: CrappieLuck))
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To: DoodleBob

Free-thinking Patriots aren’t on FB anyway, so this whole thing seems like another scam from the Most Fradulent Administration in US History.


19 posted on 07/20/2021 1:02:39 AM PDT by No_Mas_Obama
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To: DoodleBob

Fake News. The word ‘immunity’ is not found in the hit piece, which is necessary for ‘herd immunity’, the natural response to viral infections.


20 posted on 07/20/2021 8:55:45 AM PDT by RideForever (Know Islam, No Peace. Know Peace, No Islam.)
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