Tech

‘Take This Crap Off Their Platforms’: Amy Klobuchar Says Social Media Companies Should Be Liable For Misinformation

Screenshot/CNN

Kevin Harness Contributor
Font Size:

Democratic Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar said Sunday that social media platforms should take more responsibility for posts that could potentially spread misinformation about COVID vaccines.

Klobuchar joined “State of the Union” host Dana Bash to talk about President Joe Biden’s plan to work with social media platforms to flag misinformation, and she argued that platforms like Facebook should be held liable for allowing misinformation to spread. (RELATED: ‘The Only Pandemic We Have Is Among The Unvaccinated’: Biden Says Facebook Misinformation Is ‘Killing People’)

WATCH:

“Do you think Facebook should face consequences and should Facebook be broken up?” Bash asked.

“Social media has greatly contributed to this misinformation. There’s no doubt,” Klobuchar said. She added that many people who refused to take the vaccine were getting their information from posts on Facebook. In addition, she claimed that most of the people who have died from COVID-19 died after the vaccine rollout.

Klobuchar also praised President Joe Biden for his plan to crack down on misinformation but said that it didn’t go far enough.

“I think we also should look at changing the liability standards when it comes to vaccine misinformation,” Klobuchar continued. “When we have a public health crisis and people are dying every day, enough is enough. These are the richest companies in the world. They are, Dana. There’s absolutely no reason they shouldn’t be able to monitor this better and take this crap off of their platforms that are basically telling people, oh, hey, there’s problems, when we know science proves there isn’t.”

Klobuchar concluded that social media platforms need to make more of an effort to prevent the spread of misinformation and if they did not, they should face anti-trust regulations from the government. She also said that Republicans could help by standing up to talk about the effectiveness and safety of vaccines.