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Selena Gomez believes Facebook could be responsible for ‘thousands of deaths’ because they allegedly spread disinformation about the new coronavirus.
The 28-year-old pop star took to Twitter on Tuesday to share a video with Imran Ahmed, the founder and CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), who talks to BBC News about how big technology companies are reporting information about COVID -19.
In the clip shared to Gomez’s account, Ahmed is questioned about Facebook’s previous allegation that it removes misinformation “that could lead to physical harm” and about vaccines. According to the findings of his task force, he claimed that companies like Facebook do not take down as many jobs as they claim.
“So we took 1,000 pieces of misinformation. We got some volunteers to report it using their own systems … Less than 5% were removed,” Ahmed claims. “And this is what happens when you really investigate it. The truth is that we believe through social media companies that they do their best, but in reality do absolutely nothing.”
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Gomez, whose Twitter account boasts 64 million followers, called on Facebook to make sure he was keeping a close eye on what was being said on his platform.
“Scientific disinformation costs and will cost lives. @Facebook said they do not allow lies about COVID and vaccines to be spread on their platforms. Why is this still happening?” Gomez tweeted it.
Singer “Lose You to Love Me” continues: “Facebook is going to be responsible for thousands of deaths if they do not take action now!”
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The Center for Countering Digital Hate applauded Gomez for participating in the ‘outrage’ against Facebook for allegedly “making a profit by prolonging the pandemic”.
However, a Facebook spokesperson claims that the company is committed to communicating correct facts about COVID-19 vaccines.
“We are committed to reaching as many people as possible with accurate information on vaccines, and have partnered with WHO and Unicef to do just that. We have banned ads that discourage people from getting vaccinated, and have increased the number of people which sees the vaccine’s fake appearance reduced verified by the WHO and the CDC, ”reads the statement on behalf of the social media platform.
It continues: “We also give labels to pages and groups that repeatedly share vaccines, downgrade their posts in News Feed and do not recommend it to anyone. We continue to remove accounts and content that violates our policies and is the only company to more than 80 fact-finding organizations around the world. “
As early as July, Facebook created a section in its COVID-19 information center called “Facts About COVID-19” in which the World Health Organization would debunk “general myths about the pandemic.” ‘
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At the time, a Facebook spokesperson told FOX Business that the company has been connecting people with authoritative information about COVID since January and the information center has been in use since March. Facebook said its efforts have linked 2 billion people to information from health authorities.
Reports earlier this month allege that the social media giant is changing its hate speech algorithms to give priority to the removal of posts targeting minority groups. The initiative, called the WoW project, aims to improve Facebook’s automated systems that detect and immediately remove hate speech and racial barriers banned on the site, reports The Washington Post, citing internal documents.