U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy lambasted social media companies for their role in a pandemic fueled by health misinformation. In calling on Americans to come together to fight the behemoth of disinformation in a 22-page report, Murthy assailed not only the tech giants but teachers, doctors, journalists and academics, as well as school children, families and friendship groups, calling on them to do more to fight fake news. But the social media companies came under most scrutiny.

The report immediately touched off well defined political hotwires. Conservative pundits decried freedom of speech infringement, painting a picture of the government dictating to social media companies what content they can allow on their platforms. 

The report was couched in the language of togetherness, making suggestions for what we can all do to fight fake news. To pitch in, the social media giants could, Murthy wrote, consider letting academics see how platforms moderate content, and re-jig their recommendation algorithm to stop prioritizing fake news. 

That won’t happen, said David Robert Grimes, a scientist and vaccine advocate who campaigns against misinformation. “I’ve always said social media platforms do not give a continental damn about the ramifications of what’s on their platforms,” he said. “They care about engagement; they are not really going to shut down communities of hundreds of thousands of very active users unless they are forced to do that by legislation.”