Reuters/Alan Freed; Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call
- Mark Zuckerberg said in a livestreamed interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci that Facebook has been in touch with the incoming Biden administration about how it can help with the COVID-19 response.
- Zuckerberg said Facebook is planning a “push around authoritative information on vaccines,” although he did not elaborate on exactly what this would look like.
- The Financial Times reported last week that Facebook was considering placing a banner at the top of its site encouraging users to get vaccinated, as a way of getting in President-elect Joe Biden’s good books.
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Facebook is already trying to collaborate with President-elect Joe Biden, its CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Monday.
During a livestreamed interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci, Zuckerberg said Facebook has made contact with the Biden administration about ways it can help with the COVID-19 response.
This included promoting “authoritative information” on vaccines, he said.
“Our team at Facebook has already reached out to the incoming administration to help with the COVID response in any way that we can. I’m sure there will be a few important things that we can do together,” said Zuckerberg.
“We’re already planning a push around authoritative information on vaccines,” Zuckerberg said.
Zuckerberg did not elaborate on exactly what this "push" would look like.
Zuckerberg's comments tally with a Financial Times report from last week that Facebook was planning to roll out features promoting vaccine and climate change information as a way of getting in Biden's good books.
The president-elect has already shown signs he will come down hard on Facebook over misinformation on its platform.
Read more: 5 experts predict how a Biden administration could crack down on the advertising and tech industries
Company Sources told the FT that Facebook was considering putting a banner at the top of its site encouraging users to get a COVID-19 vaccine.
In October, the social media giant launched a new "preventative health tool" which directed users towards information about getting flu shots.
Moderna and Pfizer have both filed for approval of their COVID-19 vaccines, so it's possible Facebook will roll out something similar once vaccines become available to the public.
Facebook also announced in October it was changing its policy to ban ads that discourage people from getting vaccinated.
The platform does not fully ban anti-vaccination — also known as "anti-vaxx" — content, though in February it said it would start making pages and groups that regularly promote anti-vaxx posts more difficult to find in its search results.