The dialogue was very short and crystal-clear:
Reporter: «On Covid misinformation, what’s your message to platforms like Facebook?»
Biden: «They’re killing people»
What the US president means is that the way social media works favours misinformation and lies, thus fuelling conspiracy theories and hurting the global effort to promote vaccination.
A Facebook spokesman responded by calling statements such as Biden’s «accusations which aren’t supported by the facts» as vaccine acceptance among Facebook users in the US has increased, according to an official statement.
What is really at stake, however, is more serious: is it really Facebook’s fault if negativity and intrigue provoke more engagement and therefore more reach of such views? Is the platform a free forum for users to exchange views, or not?
According to the US government, Facebook and social media in general can and should restrict the circulation of certain views. Facebook accepts this to some extent, changing the way its algorithms work to that end.
But is it then the case that, in this way, social media are killing not people but the very freedom of speech in whose name they started operating? Food for thought and, as always, matter of perception.
