White House: Social media 'must stop' amplifying untrustworthy content, disinformation

The White House on Wednesday said that the social media platforms such as Facebook need to have strict policies on combating disinformation and misinformation — especially related to life-threatening issues like COVID-19 and vaccinations that continue to proliferate on their platforms. At a presser, the White House secretary Jen Psaki was asked by a reporter about Facebook’s decision to keep the ban on the former President Donald Trump’s account, which was placed after he allegedly incited the January 6 insurrection. Psaki was asked about its impact on the First Amendment rights as a US citizen. “The President’s view is that the major platforms have a responsibility related to the health and safety of all Americans to stop amplifying untrustworthy content, disinformation, and misinformation, especially COVID-19 and elections,” the White House Press secretary said. 

In her remarks about the first amendment, Psaki told reporters that it was fully up to Facebook’s Oversight Board to uphold the company’s ban against former President Trump from using the platform. She, however, said that the Biden administration supports better privacy protections across the social media platforms and a robust anti-trust program, adding that there’s more that needs to be done by these mediums to ensure that any misinformation; disinformation; damaging, sometimes life-threatening information is withheld from the reach of the American public.

Social media has 'a responsibility,' Psaki says

Psaki said that the White House was "not going to have any comment on the future of the former president’s social media platform,” but stressed that the social media companies have a responsibility to regulate the information online for more credibility. "And we've seen that over the past several months, broadly speaking. I'm not placing any blame on any individual or group," Psaki said, not naming the former President as she added, ”we’ve seen it from a number of sources." 

Facebook’s board earlier yesterday upheld ex-US President Donald Trump’s ban from both of his social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram. Although, in a tweet, the board stated that it was not appropriate for Facebook to impose the “indeterminate and standardless penalty of indefinite suspension” and gave the social media giant nearly six months to review the "arbitrary" indefinite ban. Board also suggested that the company was in breach of its own rules. The White House also stated that it believed in the "First Amendment rights” of the American citizens.