Outspoken anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been banned from Instagram, a spokesperson said.
His account was removed Wednesday for “repeatedly sharing disproved claims about the coronavirus or vaccines,” said a spokesperson for Instagram, which owns Facebook.
Kennedy’s Facebook page was still active as of Thursday morning.
When asked if that account would also be banned, the spokesperson said, “We don’t automatically disable accounts in our apps because the accounts can post about different things on our different services.”
On Monday, Facebook announced it is expanding its efforts to work hard on accounts spreading false claims about the coronavirus pandemic or vaccines, including the Covid-19 shooting. The company said it also made it more difficult to find such accounts through search.
“We continue to improve search results on our platforms. When people search Facebook for vaccines or Covid-19-related content, we promote relevant, authoritative results and provide third-party resources to connect people with expert information about vaccines”, according to a press release states. “On Instagram, we are not only showing authoritative results in Google Search, but in the coming weeks we will make it harder to find accounts that discourage people from getting vaccinated.”
Kennedy, the son of the late former US senator and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, has spoken out against vaccinations for years. In May 2019, several of his relatives wrote in an op-ed that his controversial claims “contributed to the spread of dangerous misinformation.”
“We love Bobby. He is one of the great champions of the environment,” Sister Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, brother Joseph P. Kennedy II and Cousin Maeve Kennedy McKean wrote for Politico. “But he is wrong about vaccines.”
Kennedy did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment.
