Facebook has defended itself against United States President Joe Biden's assertion that the social media platform is “killing people” by allowing misinformation about coronavirus vaccines to proliferate, saying the facts tell a different story.

“The data shows that 85 per cent of Facebook users in the US have been or want to be vaccinated against Covid-19,” Facebook said in a corporate blog post by Guy Rosen, a company vice president. “President Biden's goal was for 70pc of Americans to be vaccinated by July 4. Facebook is not the reason this goal was missed.”

The company has introduced rules against making specific false claims about Covid-19 and vaccines for it, and says it provides people with reliable information on these topics.