Facebook owner Meta said Thursday it had kicked one of the most influential US anti-vaccine groups off the social media network for dissemination Covid-19 misinformation.
The Children’s Health Defense (CHD), which has been a criticizer of Covid vaccines, instantly accused Meta of stifling its free speech rights.
“Facebook is acting here as a surrogate for the federal government’s crusade to silence all criticism of draconian government policies,” CHD founder Robert Kennedy Jr., nephew of late president John F. Kennedy, said in a press release.
Meta spokesperson Aaron Simpson told AFP that the group’s accounts at Facebook and Instagram secured on Wednesday. The ban came after frequent violations of Meta’s misinformation rules.
CHD said its social media accounts followed by hundreds of thousands of people, and appealed the action by Meta came as a surprise.
In a proclamation, the group shared a screen capture showing messages testifying the accounts postponed for violating Meta policies concerning “misinformation that could lead to real world harm.”
Read Also: COVID-19 Antibody Drug accessible to US
CHD resisted that the ban linked to a lawsuit it filed in contradiction of Meta accusing the tech giant of infringing free speech rights by trusting on US Centers for Disease Control regarding what Covid-19 information scientifically backed.
The anti-vaccine group has appealed a lower court ruling beside it in the litigation, according to legal filings.