Source: United States Senator for Minnesota Amy Klobuchar
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) issued the statement below following the release of Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s public health advisory on the spread of misinformation about coronavirus vaccines:
“Even as more and more Americans get their shots, the danger of the coronavirus and vaccine-related misinformation persists. With this advisory, Surgeon General Murthy is declaring misinformation a major threat to public health and calling on the American people to help limit its spread. In Congress, I will continue pushing for policies to address the proliferation of misinformation and hold perpetrators accountable.”
Klobuchar has been a leader in the fight against coronavirus and vaccine-related misinformation. In April, she and Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) sent a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg highlighting a report issued by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, which found that approximately 65 percent of anti-vaccine content on Facebook and Twitter can be attributed to the “Disinformation Dozen” – 12 individuals who play leading roles in spreading digital disinformation about coronavirus vaccines. In light of these findings, Klobuchar and Luján called on Dorsey and Zuckerberg to remove these individuals from their social media platforms, which resulted in Twitter taking action against six users and issuing one permanent account suspension and Facebook taking action against several users.
In January, Klobuchar and Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Gary Peters (D-MI) sent a letter to Dorsey, Zuckerberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki calling on them to combat the spread of false and misleading information related to coronavirus vaccines. The letter requested information regarding the extent of coronavirus and vaccine-related misinformation, asking the companies to provide updates on new policies and partnerships with public health and civil rights organizations implemented to protect users. In February, Facebook announced it would remove posts with erroneous claims about vaccines, including taking down assertions that vaccines cause autism or that it is safer for people to contract the coronavirus than to receive the vaccinations.
Last year, Klobuchar joined Peters and Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) to introduce the COVID-19 Misinformation & Disinformation Task Force Act, which would create a COVID-19 Misinformation & Disinformation Task Force led by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA). The Task Force would consist of representatives from a variety of federal agencies and would be responsible for creating an awareness campaign to help inform the public of the risks of misinformation and disinformation related to the pandemic, including explanations of how foreign adversaries may use the pandemic to change American’s opinions or cause panic.
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