Surgeon general demands data on COVID-19 misinformation from major tech firms

U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has reportedly asked Big Tech companies to hand over data regarding COVID-19 misinformation, The New York Times reported on Thursday.

In a formal notice, Murthy requested major tech platforms submit information about the prevalence and scale of COVID-19 misinformation on their sites, from social networks, search engines, crowdsourced platforms, e-commerce platforms and instant messaging systems.

The Surgeon general last summer issued an advisory calling health misinformation an "urgent threat," and urging tech and social media platforms to redesign algorithms to reduce misinformation amplification and to bolster their monitoring of it.