President Biden leveled an extraordinary charge against Facebook and other social media platforms on Friday, claiming they are "killing people" by allowing coronavirus misinformation to spread. The accusation comes as health officials are voicing concern over rising cases of the virus and stalling vaccination rates. 

CNN anchor Dana Bash took a direct shot Sunday at rival Fox News in an interview with Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, asking if the top-rated cable news channel was “killing people” with its commentary on the COVID-19 vaccination.

Ms. Bash noted that President Biden charged social-media platforms Friday with “killing people” by allowing the spread of vaccine misinformation, and then played clips from Fox’s “The Ingraham Angle” and “Tucker Carlson Tonight” as well as Newsmax.

The White House turned up the pressure on Silicon Valley to get a handle on vaccine misinformation Thursday, specifically singling out 12 people one group dubbed the "disinformation dozen," saying they were responsible for a great deal of misinformation about Covid-19.

"There's about 12 people who are producing 65% of anti-vaccine misinformation on social media platforms," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday.

The federal government is stepping up its effort to purge the internet of COVID-19 "misinformation." On Thursday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki singled out a dozen specific anti-vaccine Facebook accounts and called on the platform to ban them.

"There's about 12 people who are producing 65 percent of vaccine misinformation on social media platforms," said Psaki. "All of them remain active on Facebook, despite some even being banned on other platforms, including ones that Facebook owns."

Critics roundly condemned the White House after Press Secretary Jen Psaki revealed the Biden administration is working with Facebook to flag "problematic" posts that "spread disinformation" on COVID-19.

On Thursday, Psaki was asked a question regarding the Biden administration’s request for tech companies to be more "aggressive" when policing what they referred to as "misinformation." Psaki revealed that the White House is "in regular touch with social media platforms" to handle it.

Facebook is not doing enough to stop the spread of false claims about COVID-19 and vaccines, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Thursday, part of a new administration pushback on misinformation in the United States.

Facebook, which owns Instagram and WhatsApp, needs to work harder to remove inaccurate vaccine information from its platform, Psaki said.

During a press briefing Thursday, Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that the White House was collaborating with social media companies to censor COVID ‘disinformation.’

In response to a reporter’s question, she said the federal government has ramped up its disinformation research and tracking.

Arecent article published by Politico about COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy also discussed a new plan by White House allies that has left some people worried. The story mentioned that the White House was looking into increasing its fight against vaccine misinformation sent through SMS and text messages. One of the authors of the article later addressed some questions about the story, clarifying a few points that weren’t originally shared.

The Biden administration is casting conservative opponents of its Covid-19 vaccine campaign as dangerous and extreme, adopting a more aggressive political posture in an attempt to maneuver through the public health conundrum.

Speculation that President Joe Biden and the Democratic National Committee are petitioning cellphone carriers to monitor and edit private text messages is false, DNC and White House officials tell the Washington Examiner.

Still, political operatives from both parties have made a practice of monitoring mass text blasts from the other side in recent years as SMS marketing has exploded as a tool for political campaigns, fundraising groups, and even private sector businesses.