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RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine group kicked off Instagram and Facebook

Children’s Health Defense is one of the most influential anti-vaccine organizations active on social media, where it has spread misleading claims about vaccines and other public health measures designed to control the pandemic.
Image: Attorney Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. speaks after a hearing challenging the constitutionality of the state legislature's repeal of the religious exemption to vaccination on behalf of New York state families who held lawful religious exemptions, during a rally on Aug. 14, 2019, in Albany, N.Y.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks after a hearing challenging the constitutionality of the New York Legislature's repeal of the religious exemption to vaccination in Albany on Aug. 14, 2019.Hans Pennink / AP
/ Source: The Associated Press

Instagram and Facebook suspended Children’s Health Defense this week after the anti-vaccine group led by Robert Kennedy Jr. repeatedly violated rules prohibiting misinformation about Covid-19.

Children’s Health Defense, a nonprofit group, is one of the most influential anti-vaccine organizations active on social media, where it has spread misleading claims about vaccines and other public health measures designed to control the pandemic.

In a statement, Kennedy compared Facebook’s actions to government censorship, even though Facebook is a private company that can set and enforce its own rules about misinformation.

“Facebook is acting here as a surrogate for the federal government’s crusade to silence all criticism of draconian government policies,” Kennedy said.

Children’s Health Defense had hundreds of thousands of followers when it was suspended, it said in a statement, which also noted that it has sued Facebook over its moderation policies.

Public health advocates and misinformation experts have criticized Facebook for not having acted more swiftly to contain potentially harmful misinformation about Covid-19 and vaccines.

Karen Kornbluh, the director of the Digital Innovation and Democracy Initiative at the German Marshall Fund, said too many groups like Children’s Health Defense have been allowed to flourish on social media for too long. She noted that the group remains on Twitter.

“Today’s step is too late and too little,” Kornbluh said, adding that tech companies must address the reasons misinformation spreads so readily on social media.

Facebook and Instagram confirmed the suspension Thursday in a statement to The Associated Press.

“We removed these accounts for repeatedly violating our policies,” a spokesman for Meta, Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, told the AP. Under the platforms’ policies, suspensions are typically enforced only after multiple violations.

Several state affiliates of Children’s Health Defense remain on Facebook and Instagram despite the ban of the national organization. Kennedy was kicked off Instagram last year but continues to keep an active account on Facebook.