ROBERT F Kennedy Jr has been removed from Instagram after repeatedly making false and inaccurate claims about Covid-19 and the vaccines designed to treat the coronavirus.
The son of late former US Attorney General, US Senator and presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy has his account closed permanently after “repeatedly sharing debunked claims” among his followers.
Facebook, which owns Instagram, confirmed the ban in a statement.
Despite moving him from the platform, Kennedy Jr’s Facebook account, which has more than 300,000 followers, remains active.
That’s despite Facebook vowing to remove false claims about Covid-19 vaccines as part of a pledge to prevent posts that could lead to "imminent physical harm" on the platform.
A lawyer and environmentalist, Kennedy Jr is an outspoken opponent of the Covid-19 vaccine and has used social media to promote a variety of debunked claims including one linking the death of legendary baseball player Hank Aaron to the jab.
He previously lobbied Congress to give parents exemptions from state requirements that mandate they vaccinate their children.
Despite these claims, he has always insisted he is favour of safe vaccines and that all of his children have been vaccinated.
Kennedy Jr chairs the Children's Health Defense, a group set up by sceptics of the health benefits of vaccines. He has also campaigned in opposition of the immunisation of measles following a resurgence of the infection.
He also spoke at a conference for the National Vaccine Information Centre, a group accused of spreading misinformation on vaccines, said claimed the “seeds" of his message were “landing on very fertile ground".
An influential figure in the anti-vaccination community, Kennedy Jr has also given speeches anti-lockdown protests and his videos have been promoted by activists around the world.
He has used his platform to promote inaccurate and discredited scientific theories which have appeared in various forms across Facebook and other social media platforms.
While Kennedy Jr has been banned, the Instagram and Facebook accounts of Children's Health Defense remain active and boast over 300,000 followers in total.
