Robert F Kennedy Jr’s Instagram Account Removed for False Coronavirus Claims

Move comes as the company is expanding efforts to crack down on conspiracy theory content

robert kennedy jr
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Instagram removed Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s account on Wednesday for sharing false claims about the coronavirus, the company said.

A spokesperson for Facebook confirmed the removal and told TheWrap in a statement, “We removed this account for repeatedly sharing debunked claims about the coronavirus or vaccines.”

Earlier this week, the company announced it was expanding its “efforts to remove false claims on Facebook and Instagram about COVID-19, COVID-19 vaccines and vaccines in general during the pandemic.”

Kennedy had over 800,000 followers on his Instagram account and earlier this week, he re-posted a video from a group called “Planet Lockdown” that had been banned by Facebook and YouTube.

Kennedy, the son of the late U.S. attorney general and nephew of John F. Kennedy, is a lawyer who in recent years has become a notorious anti-vaxxer whose public views have put him at odds with his famous family members.

In May 2019, in an article for Politico titled “RFK Jr. Is Our Brother and Uncle. He’s Tragically Wrong About Vaccines,” Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Joseph P. Kennedy II, Maeve Kennedy McKean — RFK’s sister, brother and niece — said of him, “He has helped to spread dangerous misinformation over social media and is complicit in sowing distrust of the science behind vaccines.”

 

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