Biden: 'Killing people' remark was call for big tech to act

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden tempered his assessment that social media giants are “killing people” by hosting misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccines on their platforms, saying Monday that he hoped they would not take it “personally” and instead would act to save lives.While companies like Facebook defend their practices and say they’re helping people around the world access verified information about the shots, the White House says they haven’t done enough to stop misinformation that has helped slow the pace of new vaccinations in the U.S. to a trickle. And even if we see correlations in the data, these could be spurious rather than causal — people who aren’t going to get vaccinated are presumably more likely to be exposed to negative and false information about the vaccine.”That said, Nyhan added that there is some evidence that exposure to misinformation can reduce a person’s intention to vaccinate immediately after viewing the misinformation.White House press secretary Jen Psaki insisted Monday: “We’re not in a war or battle against Facebook — we’re in a battle with the virus.” But she ramped up pressure on the companies to share information on how many Americans are exposed to misinformation on their platforms and how their secretive and powerful algorithms promote false content to users.“Do you have access to information from these platforms as to who is receiving misinformation?” she asked.