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# FDA Learning to Combat Social Media Disinformation
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/fda-learning-to-combat-social-media-disinformation/
- Published: 2023-02-14T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-14T18:15:47.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: FDA Policy/General, #legacy-id-D5153779

A *Los Angeles Times* story carried by *Yahoo! News*, says FDA is “treading a fine line as it attempts to respond to misinformation on social media without amplifying it.” The [article](https://www.yahoo.com/now/memes-tweets-snark-fdas-public-215236971.html?ref=fdaweb.com) says that since **Robert Califf** was named agency commissioner over a year ago, FDA has set its sights on social media disinformation as a public health scourge.

“Sometimes if you get into a dispute with people that are not telling the truth, Califf says, “it just magnifies the situation. I think it’s better in this case to reinforce the truth and not get into a back-and-forth argument with people that are peddling falsehoods. Historically, FDA has been able to put out a statement that would be transmitted to doctors, the medical establishment, and then the patients. We’re now in an era where FDA puts out a statement and then there’s 24 x 7 alternative information that needs to be dealt with.”

The article says the agency has staffers who create memes and other content to feed into the Internet to defend science. It says the expanded efforts was inspired by the widespread misuse of invermectin earlier in the pandemic.

The FDA tweet “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously y’all. Stop it.” became the agency’s top tweet in terms of overall engagement with more than 110,000 likes and being retweeted or quoted more than 70,000 times.

“We need to have more that go viral,” Califf said, “but we’ve got to learn how to do that better and better.”