World News – AU – Instagram bans Pete Evans for spreading misinformation

Former celebrity chef Pete Evans’ Instagram account has been closed after repeated debunked claims about COVID-19 and vaccines have been exchanged

Mr. Evans had about 280000 followers on the social media platform for sharing pictures, where he also shared misinformation about possible COVID-19 cures and vaccines Several posts from Mr Evans were removed for violating the platform’s misinformation and harm policy before his account was removed on Wednesday

Pete Evans and MP Craig Kelly were both removed from Facebook for posting unproven coronavirus cures

On a Mr. Evans podcast earlier this month, Coalition MP Craig Kelly said Australians had died after being denied access to potentially life-saving medical treatments by “big government”

In December, Mr Evans’ Facebook page was deleted because his posts violated the company’s misinformation policy, Instagram is owned by Facebook

Mr Evans wrote on Telegram, a messenger app, that he believed the ban was provoked by a conspiracy story he told

“My almost 300000 person account on Instagram is just gone because I republished the Veritas project story about Mark Zuckerberg about DNA and mRNA vaccine information, “he wrote

Mr. Evans promoted a “BioCharger” on a Facebook live stream, claiming it could be used in connection with “Wuhan Coronavirus” In April he was fined 25 by the Therapeutic Goods Administration200 US dollars His claim has “no obvious basis”

Last week, Evans announced that he would run for the federal parliament as a Senate candidate for the Great Australian Party, a fringe group of former One Nation Senator Rod Culleton

A spokesman for the Facebook company said he removed Mr. Evans’ Instagram account “for repeatedly sharing debunked claims about the coronavirus or vaccines”

“We do not allow anyone to share misinformation about COVID-19 that could lead to imminent physical harm or about COVID-19 vaccines that have been exposed by public health experts,” said a spokesman for the Facebook company

The company updated its COVID-19 and vaccine misinformation policy last week, cracking down on content that violates new rules on both Facebook and Instagram

Liberal backbencher Craig Kelly has been spreading lies on social media at a time when the government wants full support for efforts to vaccinate almost everyoneCredit: Facebook

Mr Kelly was suspended from Facebook for at least a week on Tuesday for promoting unproven COVID-19 treatments such as hydroxychloroquine

Mr. Kelly was about 80000 people who “like” his page on which he posts controversial information about climate change and coronavirus Facebook found that five of his posts violated the new rules of the social media website

Facebook’s new list of false claims to be removed contains content stating that COVID-19 was man-made, that vaccines are toxic, dangerous, or cause autism, or that it is safer to get the disease than the vaccine

In the last three months of 2020, more than a million misinformation about COVID-19 has been removed from Facebook and Instagram, which could lead to imminent physical harm such as fake preventive measures or excessive cures

During the same period, 86 million Facebook posts on terrorism and 64 million Facebook posts on organized hate groups were removed from the platform

Facebook has pledged $ 120 million in advertising credits to help ministries of health and other agencies spread COVID-19 vaccines and preventative health information

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Pete Evans