Biden’s administration claimed that they will fight misinformation at every cost, including establishing a Disinformation Governance Board. Big Tech companies like Twitter have flagged posts that they believe contain misinformation about important issues such as coronavirus vaccines. Yet, while the White House posted false information on Thursday regarding vaccines, Twitter has yet not to correct the incorrect message sent to many users.
“When President Biden assumed office, millions of people were unemployed. There was no vaccine. The White House verified Twitter account stated that the economy has created 8.3M new jobs in the past 15 months and that the unemployment rate is at 3.6%. This is the fastest ever decline in unemployment to begin a Presidential term.
The COVID-19 vaccine was available at the time Biden assumed office on January 20, 2021, according to observers. A video was shared by the same Twitter account of Biden receiving his second dose one week before Inauguration Day.
Biden previously shared an image in which he received the first dose of chemotherapy on December 21, 2020.
Twitter has taken steps to protect misinformation on its platform. It stated in its guidelines that users should not use Twitter’s services for misleading or false information about COVID-19.
According to the policy, COVID-19 content is considered to be in violation if it is “demonstrably falsified or misleading” and is based on authoritative, widely available sources. This is explained by the social media juggernaut that repeat offenders could face a permanent suspension and possibly being locked out of their accounts until they are deleted.
A disclaimer was sent to some users that “readers added context” in order to show that the first vaccines were administered before Biden became president. However, only a small number of people who are part of a pilot program received the notification. It is unclear why the White House tweeted this message, which was not visible to most of its followers.
Twitter didn’t immediately respond to a request for explanations regarding the “added context message” being sent to the tweet, instead of something that indicated the White House had misrepresented the information.
Many Americans lost their access to their accounts for sharing inaccurate information, as deemed by Twitter. The Babylon Bee, a satirical website, was recently locked out of its account after a joke that named Dr. Rachel Levine, a Biden administration official, the “Man of the year” for 2022. Levine, U.S. assistant secretary for health, is transgender.
Although Twitter did not immediately take action against clear misinformation from White House, critics across the media landscape saw the violation.
Joe Concha, Fox News’ Joe Concha, tweeted: “Anybody got the customer support line for the new disinformationboard?”
It is clear that the statement “There was no vaccine available” is false. Over 3 million Americans had been fully vaccinated, and 18 million more received at least one dose during Biden’s Inauguration. Dale tweeted that Biden was himself fully vaccinated. “Obviously, it became more readily available over time, but.”
Glenn Kessler, Washington Post fact-checker, asked: “Who manages the @WhiteHouse twitter account?”
