Meta deletes accounts of US anti-vaccination organization
Facebook and Instagram on Thursday deleted the accounts of Children’s Health Care, an organization critical of the safety of Covid-19 vaccines.
Robert Kennedy Jr., son-in-law of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, was a prominent figure in the American anti-vaccination scene.
Getty Images via AFP
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has removed the accounts of Children’s Health Defense (CDH), an influential US anti-vaccine organization led by former President John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s son-in-law Robert Kennedy Jr., from the two platforms.
“We have removed the Instagram and Facebook accounts in question due to repeated violations of our Covid-19 policies,” Metta’s spokesman Aaron Simpson told AFP on Thursday. Criticizing the safety of vaccines against Covid-19, CDH has aligned itself with US health authorities, accusing Meta of not respecting its right to freedom of expression.
“Facebook is acting as an agent of the federal government’s crusade to silence any criticism of the government’s brutal policies,” the organization’s founder, Robert Kennedy Jr., said in a statement. The son-in-law of a former president, assassinated in 1963, and the son of a former minister, assassinated in 1968, are prominent figures in the US anti-vaccination scene.
“Misinformation”
CDH claims “hundreds of thousands” of subscribers on these two accounts and in its press release shared screenshots showing that these accounts were deleted for “misinformation.” According to CDH, the ban could be linked to the organization’s lawsuit against Meta in federal court for censorship.
CDH’s YouTube channel was taken down last September. Constantly criticized for spreading misinformation, Meta has been trying to move away from political content since the last US presidential election and focus on exchanges between relatives and communities of interest.
AFP
Did you find an error?Please let us know.
“Avid gamer. Social media geek. Proud troublemaker. Thinker. Travel fan. Problem solver.”