Instagram has removed the account of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over his anti-vaccine advocacy and claims about COVID-19 amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
“We removed this account for repeatedly sharing debunked claims about the coronavirus or vaccines,” a spokesperson for Facebook, who owns the photo-sharing platform, confirmed in a statement to The Hill.
Kennedy has been a longtime anti-vaccine activist and is the founder of the nonprofit Children’s Health Defense, a prominent anti-vaccination group. He has regularly backed discredited connections between vaccines and autism in children.
Kennedy’s Facebook page remained up as of Thursday morning. His most recent posts included posts from the nonprofit criticizing an HPV vaccine, Moderna and Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccines and more.
The social media giant does not automatically remove accounts across all of its platforms when removing pages.
The vaccines have all been shown to be safe for their intended recipients through clinical testing.
Kennedy, who is the son of the late former senator and U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, had 800,000 followers on Instagram, and he has over 300,000 followers on Facebook.
He has lobbied Congress to give parents exemptions from requirements to vaccinate their children, and he previously met with then-President-elect Trump in 2017.
Facebook on Monday said that it will remove posts that spread false information about “COVID-19 vaccines and vaccines in general.” The move expands on efforts that the social media platform put in place in December to take down misinformation on coronavirus vaccines.
The Hill
