Klobuchar Tells Social Media: ‘Take This Crap Off’

(Bloomberg) --

Senator Amy Klobuchar said misinformation on social media about Covid-19 vaccines adds urgency to her call to change liability standards for what is published on their platforms.

“There’s absolutely no reason they shouldn’t be able to monitor this better and take this crap off of their platforms,” she said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

President Joe Biden said Friday the platforms are “killing people” by allowing the spread of false information about the shots.

“I really appreciate President Biden calling this out,” the Democratic senator from Minnesota said.

Klobuchar suggested using antitrust laws to “look back and see if they should divest assets so we can get true competition” with “dominant” social media platforms, she said Sunday.

U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said Sunday he has been speaking with the platforms and will continue to ask them to take responsibility for the misinformation on the sites.

“Misinformation is still spreading like wildfire in our country, aided and abetted by technology platforms,” Murthy said on “Fox News Sunday.” He issued an advisory last week, calling attention to health misinformation that has led to avoidable illness and death.

Facebook Inc. has pushed back to Biden’s comment, saying that it won’t take the blame for the administration missing its target to get 70% of Americans inoculated by July 4. Twitter Inc. has said it will “continue to do our part” to elevate authoritative health information.

Earlier this year, Senator Klobuchar, along with Democratic senators Mark Warner and Mazie Hirono, introduced a bill to target Section 230, seeking to make it easier to sue social media platforms for harmful content.

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