- The White House facing backlash

after calling on socialmedia companies to flag

what they considermisinformation about COVID-19.

This as cases of the virus

in nearly every state are on the rise.

The nation is averaging25,300 new cases each day,

more than double that of a few weeks ago,

but far below the worst of the pandemic.

- Now is our moment to really double down

on our vaccination efforts

and our other prevention interventions.

- [George] Los Angeles County,the largest in the nation,

is now reinstating itsindoor mask mandate.

- We will be implementing an order

requiring masking indoorsregardless of vaccination.

- [George] 160 millionAmericans are fully vaccinated.

And so far the vaccinesare proving effective

against the Delta variant.

Health officials say themajority of people getting sick

are not vaccinated, andthe White House blames

what it calls misinformationcirculating on social media.

- Today, I issued aSurgeon General's advisory

on the dangers of health misinformation.

- [George] 2/3 of people not vaccinated,

he says, believe common myths.

- Myths like, you can getCOVID from the vaccine,

which is absolutely not true.

- [George] Now, Press Secretary Jen Psaki

says the White House is inregular contact with Facebook

about flagging posts seen as problematic.

- We're flagging problematicposts for Facebook

that spread disinformation.

- [George] And askingthe social media giant

to step up enforcement.

- There's about 12 people

who are producing 65% ofanti-vaccine misinformation

on social media platforms.

All of them remain active on Facebook.

- [George] Critics slammed the move

saying it infringes onthe First Amendment,

pointing out experts havefrequently been wrong,

like the theory COVIDstarted in a Chinese lab

once banned from some online discussions,

but now considered credible

even by the World Health Organization.

- As you know, I was alab technician, myself.

I'm an immunologist, andI have worked in the lab

and lab accidents happen, it's common.

I have seen it happening.

- Conservative commentatorKatie Pavlich tweeted,

reminder, Fauci worked with Facebook

to ban the lab leak theory

which is factual for more than a year.

Journalist Glenn Greenwald tweeted,

this is the union ofcorporate and state power,

one of the classic hallmarksare fascism that the people

who spent five years babblingabout fascism support.

The White House says it's careful

not to politicize thevaccine, but critics argue

their latest move is anotherexpansion of government power,

this time over free speech.

George Thomas, CBN News.