Selena Slammed Facebook For Allowing Lies About COVID To Spread & She's Got A Point
Selena Gomez has a bone to pick with Facebook. In the past, the singer has been known to call out major media companies such as Facebook and Instagram for allowing hate speech on their platforms, and, now, she's coming after them again. Gomez is furious with the way Facebook has handled the spread of false information surrounding the coronavirus, and wasn't afraid to say so. Selena Gomez's tweet calling out Facebook for allowing lies about COVID was so passionate.
Gomez shared an interview segment from BBC News where Imi Ahmed, who is on the task force for digital culture, media, and sport at the Center for Countering Digital Hate. According to a study the CCDH conducted, in which they reported 1,000 instances of misinformation using Facebook's own reporting system, harmful information containing inaccurate details about the coronavirus vaccine is rarely taken down.
"Less than 5% of misinformation was taken down," he said. "Social media companies say that they're doing their utmost, but in reality, they're doing absolutely nothing."
This didn't sit right with Gomez, who took to Twitter on Dec. 29 to call Facebook out in a big way. Sel penned a paragraph about why the social media giant needs to do better, tagging the company directly.
"Scientific disinformation has and will cost lives," she tweeted. "@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!"
You can see Gomez's tweet about Facebook allowing the spread of misinformation below.
A few weeks prior, on Dec. 2, Gomez targeted Facebook for their poor handling of hate speech online. She tagged Facebook and Instagram in a tweet which slammed them for enabling Neo-Nazi groups to actively sell merchandise on their platforms.
"I’m speechless," she tweeted. "@Facebook @Instagram how are you tolerating this hate? There’s still accounts there even though you have been notified!!"
With 200 million Instagram followers and counting, Gomez is one of the most-followed people on the internet, and she's putting her platform to good use.
