‘They Are Polluting the Information Environment’: Paul Begala, Mary Katharine Ham, Anderson Cooper Clash Over Covid Misinformation on Facebook
CNN’s Anderson Cooper discussed with network commentators Paul Begala and Mary Katharine Ham on Friday night what should be done about covid-19 misinformation on Facebook.
The Biden administration has been very vocal in the past few days saying Facebook needs to do more to crack down on misinformation about the vaccines spreading on its platform, with Jen Psaki saying they’re flagging disinformation for Facebook, citing in part research from earlier this year on individuals spreading the most misinformation. President Joe Biden even said Friday that “they’re killing people.”
Cooper asked, “When it comes to actually scientific data and facts, why shouldn’t there be an effort to help people find the truth?”
Ham made it clear she’s for the vaccines and argued “this is a speech issue.”
“This is a strategic partnership with a communications platform that the executive of the United States says is killing people with speech. That’s pretty chilling of speech,” she continued. “I worry a little bit about what will be actively censored now from — apparently marching orders from the executive of the United States.”
Begala dismissed the idea this is censorship and said, “It’s just nonsense, I’m sorry.”
“Facebook is bad for our health. They are polluting the information environment,” he said. “They could change their algorithm to promote things that are true from trusted sources. They don’t do that. Why? Because the negative holds you on their platform longer. They make more money from hate… Just the way government regulates pollution and cigarettes, the government ought to make sure Facebook is doing their job.”
“Information is a speech issue. That’s what you are talking about,” Ham shot back, again telling Begala he would see “very clearly” this would be a problem if Donald Trump was still the president.
“I don’t have the right to use free speech to say Anderson Cooper shot a man in Reno just to watch him die, right?” Begala retorted. “There are limits to speech. When people are dying because they can’t get this vaccine and companies are making profit…”
They went back and forth and Ham said it’s “very dangerous” to go down that road.
Cooper jumped in and asked Begala, “Don’t we live in a society where we believe people should have a lot of information? And they can make up their own minds about things? People who are not getting vaccines, it’s not that they never heard that vaccines are incredibly beneficial, and they haven’t — they’ve seen the facts. They are just choosing to make a different decision.”
Begala added he’s “not saying that speech should be regulated” but that Facebook is “making more money by spreading more lies.”
You can watch the full debate above, via CNN.
