Democrats Can’t Force Facebook to Stem Covid Misinformation

Proposals in Congress would have limited impact on problem
Facebook counterattacks, accusing Biden of finger-pointing

WATCH: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Vice Dean Joshua Sharfstein discusses medical misinformation on social media, outreach efforts to the unvaccinated, and a timeline for full U.S. FDA approval of Covid-19 vaccines.(Source: Bloomberg)

Provide news feedback or report an error

Confidential tip?

Send a tip to our reporters

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

By Anna Edgerton

July 20, 2021 at 6:00 AM UTC

Updated on

July 20, 2021 at 12:47 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

Defeating Covid-19 in the U.S. is now mired in a partisan information war, a fight that President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress are ill-equipped to win.

Biden’s struggle to control the coronavirus and vaccine misinformation online was evident in his broadside Friday that companies like Facebook Inc. were “killing people.” He begged social media platforms to change and pleaded with the American people not to believe everything they read.