There’s nothing like two rich white guys passive-aggressively duking it out in public to get the blood running. Just look at nearly every presidential election in American history. But today’s latest face-off, while involving a sitting President, is all to do with Joe Biden unfriending Facebook.
Not in the literal sense, mind you. But more in the lightly-accuse-them-of-being-an-accessory-to-murder-while-still-partaking-in-their-services-and-enjoying-your-11-million-followers kind of way. Here’s the scoop.
After Biden’s plan to vaccinate 70 percent of Americans by the Fourth of July fell short, and with Covid numbers surging again, he’s decided to hold Facebook partly responsible for the pileup. With a snarky comment that would make any internet troll proud, Biden told the press from the South Lawn of the White House, “they’re killing people.”
And according to the numbers, he’s not wrong.
The Center for Countering Digital Hate found that most Covid-19 vaccine misinformation came from just 12 people. And lo and behold the majority of the dirty dozen’s content circulated via Facebook to over 59 million people.
Facebook clapped back with some sass of their own, basically calling Biden a frustrated old man because his vaccine goals were left wanting. But while Facebook talks a good game (despite their shitty haircut), they haven’t done enough to curb the toxic spread of misinformation on their platform.
It may seem like a First Amendment pickle for the social media behemoth, but a private company regulating the misinformation of a few pseudo-scientific dingbats doesn’t really feel the same as gagging someone in the middle of Times Square. After all, there’ll still be plenty of avenues for these would-be political influencers to peddle their fugazi wares.
While Biden later jogged back his accusation (as is customary in passive-aggressive warfare) the sting of his words has left a reddish welt. Though he would never be caught with his thumbs down in public, Biden is spiritually waving bye-bye to Facebook. We just hope this means he’ll be saying hello to TikTok on the rebound.
Cover Photo: Alex Wong (Getty Images)
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