President Biden’s Surgeon General on Thursday formally requested that major tech platforms provide information on the extent of Covid-19 disinformation across social networks, search engines, crowdsourced platforms, e-commerce platforms and instant messaging systems.
A request for information from the Surgeon General’s office required technical platforms to send data and analysis on the prevalence of Covid-19 misinformation on their sites, starting with common examples of vaccine misinformation documented by the Centers. for Disease Control and Prevention.
The notice asks the companies to submit “exactly how many users have seen or been exposed to instances of misinformation about Covid-19,” as well as aggregated data on demographics that may have been disproportionately exposed or influenced by the misinformation. .
The Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, also demanded information from the platforms on the main sources of Covid-19 disinformation, including those involved in the sale of unproven Covid-19 products, services and treatments.
“Tech companies now have the opportunity to be open and transparent with the American people about the misinformation on their platforms,” said Dr. Murthy in an emailed statement. He added: “This is about protecting the health of the nation.”
Companies have until May 2 to submit the data. There is no penalty for refusing information requests, but the notification is the Biden administration’s first formal request from the tech companies to submit misinformation about Covid-19, the surgeon general’s office said.
Six months ago, Dr. Murthy gave his first formal advice to the United States to launch a wide-ranging campaign against technology and social media companies, which he accused of not doing enough to stop the spread of dangerous health misinformation – especially about Covid-19. He called the misinformation “an urgent threat to public health.”
The request for information is part of President Biden’s Covid National Preparedness Plan, which the White House detailed on Wednesday and which is a roadmap for a new phase of the pandemic in which Covid-19 is causing “minimal disruption,” the White House says. Biden first revealed details of the plan during his State of the Union address Tuesday night.
In addition to demanding misinformation from the tech platforms, the Surgeon General called on health care providers and the public to submit information about how the misinformation from Covid-19 has negatively impacted patients and communities.
“We’re asking anyone with relevant insights — from original research and datasets to personal stories that speak about the role of misinformation in public health — to share it with us,” said Dr. murthy.
