Facebook has removed Pete Evans’ official account from Instagram, citing the conspiracy theorist’s constant spread of coronavirus and vaccines misinformation.
Days after the former My Kitchen Rules judge was announced as a candidate for a minority, right-wing political party, Evans has been booted from one of his last remaining online platforms.
In a statement, Facebook confirmed Evans’ profile, which had hundreds of thousands of followers, would be permanently removed.
“We removed Pete Evans’s account for repeatedly sharing debunked claims about the coronavirus or vaccines,” the company said in a statement.
“We don’t allow anyone to share misinformation about COVID-19 that could lead to imminent physical harm or about COVID-19 vaccines that have been debunked by public health experts.”
It comes after Facebook updated its COVID-19 and vaccine misinformation policies last week, with the major tech company promising to crack down on false claims made on the platform.
These include not tolerating misinformation that claims that COVID-19 is man-made, that it is safer to get the disease than the vaccine and that vaccines are toxic, dangerous or cause autism.
Furthermore, Evans’ removal from Instagram follows similar moves by the image sharing app’s parent company, Facebook, removing him in December, alongside Spotify booting his podcast.
It also follows Evans posting a meme that included a symbol associated with neo-Nazism.
https://twitter.com/Jeff_Sparrow/status/1328069641600606210?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1328069641600606210%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bandt.com.au%2Fpete-evans-posts-neo-nazi-symbol-on-facebook-says-it-has-many-interpretations%2F
The original post and image have since been deleted. Evans had captioned the cartoon, “An oldie but a goodie”.
However, this saw Evans’ publisher at the time, Pan Macmillan, end its contractual relationship with the anti-vaxxer.
Additionally, 10 followed up by booting him from its reality show I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, which he was due to appear on in 2021.
