RFK Jnr banned by Zuckerberg – With insights from The Wall Street Journal

The nephew of JFK the US's 35th president whose true assassinators remains a mystery for many, is now the centre of his own conspiracy theory. An outspoken critic of vaccines including those being developed to combat Covid-19, the 67 year old RFK Jnr is on the wrong side of Mark Zuckerberg's censorship machine. Here's the story from our partners at The Wall Street Journal. – Alec Hogg.Use Spotify? Access BizNews podcasts here..Use Apple Podcasts? Access BizNews podcasts here..___STEADY_PAYWALL___.Instagram bans Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over Covid-19 vaccine misinformation.Parent company Facebook has been intensifying its effort to combat false and misleading information about Covid-19.By Sebastian Herrera of The Wall Street Journal.Updated Feb. 11, 2021 1:09 pm ET.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 -0.54% 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..Mr. Kennedy couldn't immediately be reached for comment.Facebook declined to say which specific posts on Instagram prompted its move.Mr. Kennedy's Facebook page, which has more than 300,000 followers and where he also has posted criticism of vaccines, was still up as of Thursday. The spokeswoman said Facebook doesn't automatically disable accounts across its different apps when it takes enforcement actions, and that while the theme of posts could be similar across platforms the specific content that violates its policies might be different.Mr. Kennedy's Twitter account, which has more than 215,000 followers and where he also frequently criticizes vaccines, also remained up as of Thursday.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.In recent posts to his Facebook account, Mr. Kennedy wrote about a 12-year-old girl who he said had a "seizure-like episode" after receiving an HPV vaccine, and about people he suggested may have died as a result of receiving Covid vaccines. He has said that he and the nonprofit organization he leads, Children's Health Defense, support safe vaccines but oppose making them compulsory.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 Sebastian.Herrera@wsj.comCopyright ©2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8Appeared in the February 12, 2021, print edition as 'Instagram Bans Kennedy For Covid Misinformation.'WSJ opens select articles to reader conversation to promote thoughtful dialogue. See the 'Join the Conversation' area to the right for stories open to conversation. For more information, please reference our community guidelines. Email feedback and questions to moderator@wsj.com.

RFK Jnr banned by Zuckerberg – With insights from The Wall Street Journal

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