Surgeon General Calls On Tech Platforms, Media Outlets To Take Greater Steps To Combat Covid-19 Misinformation; White House Singles Out Facebook
UPDATED, with Facebook comment: As the rate of Covid-19 vaccination slows and cases rise again, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy on Thursday called on tech platforms and the news media to take greater steps to combat misinformation.
Appearing at the the White House briefing room, Murthy spoke about the role that social media plays as a super spreader of Covid-19 and vaccine disinformation.
“Today we live in a world where misinformation poses an imminent and insidious threat to our nation’s health,” Murthy said, as he blamed falsehoods as one reason the pace of vaccinations was slowing. Data show that 99% of new hospitalizations and deaths are among the unvaccinated.
Murthy today issued a Surgeon General Advisory, reserved for urgent public health threats, on the dangers of health misinformation. (Read it here.) Included are a host of recommendations for tech platforms, including redesigning algorithms to avoid amplifying misinformation and take quicker action against “super spreaders” and repeat offenders.
As the for news media, he called on media organizations to train journalists and editors in ways to avoid amplifying misinformation and to “proactively address the public’s questions, as well as to reconsider headlines that “shock and provoke.”
