Facebook says it should not be blamed for US failing to meet vaccine goals

Facebook on Saturday defended itself against US President Joe Biden’s assertion that the social media platform is “killing people” by allowing misinformation about coronavirus vaccines to proliferate, saying the facts tell a different story.

“The data shows that 85% of Facebook users in the US have been or want to be vaccinated against Covid-19,” Facebook said in a corporate blog post by Guy Rosen, a company vice president.

“President Biden’s goal was for 70% of Americans to be vaccinated by July 4. Facebook is not the reason this goal was missed.”

Covid-19 misinformation has spread during the pandemic on social media sites including Facebook, Twitter and Alphabet Inc-owned YouTube. Researchers and lawmakers have long accused Facebook of failing to police harmful content on its platforms.