Instagram removed the account of prominent vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr., one of the highest-profile steps in parent company Facebook Inc.’s FB 0.90% intensifying effort to combat false and misleading information about Covid-19.
An Instagram spokeswoman said Wednesday that the company permanently removed the account “for repeatedly sharing debunked claims about the coronavirus or vaccines.” Mr. Kennedy had more than 800,000 followers on Instagram before the account was closed, according to the company.
As of late Wednesday, Mr. Kennedy’s Facebook page, which has more than 300,000 followers, was still up.
Mr. Kennedy couldn’t immediately be reached for comment late Wednesday. His Twitter account, which has some 214,000 followers and where he also frequently criticizes vaccines, also remained up as of Wednesday night.
Facebook earlier this week said it was stepping up efforts to remove false statements related to Covid-19, Covid vaccines and vaccines in general on both its flagship platform and Instagram. The company said a longer list of claims deemed false by leading health authorities—including that vaccines are ineffective and more dangerous than contracting the targeted disease—would be subject to removal.
Facebook said it has already been deleting some false claims since December, and it warned that accounts that repeatedly share debunked claims could be removed altogether.
Both vaccines currently in distribution in the U.S. proved effective in preventing Covid-19 illness in clinical trials in 2020. Public-health officials say vaccinating people is an essential part of halting the virus’s spread.
Mr. Kennedy, the nephew of the late President John F. Kennedy, is a longtime environmental activist who has criticized vaccines for years, including raising doubts about thimerosal, a mercury-containing preservative used in some vaccines. He has often used his social-media channels to broadcast his views, lately including criticisms of the Covid vaccines.
A recent report about antivaccine influencers by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a nonprofit group that advocates against extremism and misinformation online, said Mr. Kennedy is one of the top influencers helping the online spread of what it called false information about Covid-19, including that the virus isn’t dangerous.
Facebook and other social-media platforms struggled to contend with growing pressure from both those who advocate tighter controls on controversial content and those who say their efforts to limit speech amount to censorship.
Facebook has for years pledged to fight vaccine misinformation online, and has at times struggled to corral false claims. In the past it was found to be running paid ads for prominent antivaccination groups even after vowing to crack down on such content. Doctored videos and politically tied misinformation have also long found homes on the platform.
Facebook began dealing with coronavirus misinformation early in the pandemic. Initially it tweaked search results for “coronavirus” to direct users toward recognized and authoritative medical sources and removed content flagged as misleading by major health organizations. It put warning labels on millions of pieces of content related to Covid-19, and in December began notifying users about posts they interacted with that were removed because they violated the company’s policies about Covid-19 misinformation that could lead to imminent physical harm.
Write to Sebastian Herrera at [email protected]
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This post first appeared on wsj.com
