Selena Gomez Calls Out Facebook For Distributing Inaccurate COVID-19 Information

Singer Selena Gomez called out Facebook over reports that they have spread misinformation on COVID-19, she said that such information has deadly consequences.

In a tweet linked with a BBC clip which had Imi Ahmed of Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), speaking social media platforms’ role in spreading false information about the pandemic, Selena Gomez said that Facebook is going to be responsible for thousands of deaths if they don’t take action now.

Scientific disinformation has and will cost lives. @Facebook said they don’t allow lies about COVID and vaccines to be spread on their platforms. So how come all of this is still happening? Facebook is going to be responsible for thousands of deaths if they don’t take action now! https://t.co/IAtDpNT5Tt

— Selena Gomez (@selenagomez) December 30, 2020

She reminded Facebook about when the organisation had said that they don’t allow lies about COVID-19 and vaccines to be spread on their platform and asked them why it is still happening.

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In the video, Imi Ahmed said that social media platforms have done nothing to stop the spread of false information about the vaccine and the pandemic. He also cited experiments that his non-profit organisation has conducted to reach that conclusion.

This is not the first time Gomez has taken Facebook to task. Earlier she had accused the social media platform and Instagram, citing another CCDH report, for tolerating hate by not disabling accounts that spread hateful content.

One representative of Facebook had later said that they have removed content that violates their policies prohibiting dangerous organizations.

He had said that about 250 white supremacist organizations were banned from Facebook and Instagram and that they remove content that praises such organizations whenever they find it.

The 28-year-old singer had earlier sent a direct message to Facebook’s head Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg about the issue. She had written that Facebook and Instagram are being used to spread “hate, misinformation, racism and bigotry” and called both Sandberg and Zuckerberg help stop it. “Please shut down groups and users focused on spreading hate speech violence and misinformation. Our future depends on it,” she added.

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