Facebook Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Erin Scott | Reuters
A coalition of 12 state attorneys general on Wednesday called on Facebook and Twitter to enforce their community guidelines and rid their services of misinformation being spread by accounts promoting anti-vaxxing ideas.
“Misinformation disseminated via your platforms has increased vaccine hesitancy, which will slow economic recovery and, more importantly, ultimately cause even more unnecessary deaths,” the coalition of attorneys general wrote in a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.
The coalition highlights that just 12 accounts and their associated organizations are responsible for 65% of the public anti-vaccine content on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. In particular, the accounts target people of color to discourage them from getting the Covid-19 vaccines, the letter said.
The letter comes a day before Zuckerberg, Dorsey and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai are set to testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on the topic of misinformation on their services.
