Facebook denies blame for vaccine misinformation

U.S. PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN ON JULY 16: "...they're killing people."

Facebook took a defensive posture over the weekend after U.S. President Joe Biden said the social media platform was "killing people" by allowing misinformation about coronavirus vaccines to proliferate among its users.

In a corporate blog post, Facebook said the social network had promoted authoritative information about vaccines and acted against misinformation, adding "President Biden’s goal was for 70% of Americans to be vaccinated by July 4. Facebook is not the reason this goal was missed."

On Sunday, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy became the latest Biden administration official to publicly blame social media companies for fueling vaccine misinformation about the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines, saying on CNN's "State of the Union" that "There have been positive steps taken by these technology companies. But what I've also said to them publicly and privately is that it's not enough."

On CBS's "Face the Nation" on Sunday, the mayor of Springfield, Missouri, also blamed social media companies for the huge spike in COVID-19 cases in his community.

MAYOR KEN MCLURE: "I think we're seeing a lot spread through social media. People are talking about fears which they have - health-related fears, what it might do to them later on in their lives, what might be contained in the vaccinations - and that information is just incorrect. And I think we as a society and certainly in our community are being hurt by it."

Nationwide, new U.S. COVID-19 cases have surged 70% in the last week to an average of 30,000 new infections a day, fueled by the Delta variant of the coronavirus, which is now the dominant strain worldwide. Deaths rose 26% week-over-week to an average of 250 lives lost a day, almost entirely among unvaccinated people.