Facebook-owned Instagram is preventing Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is competing with President Joe Biden in the Democrat primary, from setting up an official campaign account, according to the candidate.
In a post on Twitter, RFK Jr. said that his campaign account is being automatically banned when they attempt to set up a campaign account.
BOSTON, MA – APRIL 19: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. officially announces his candidacy for President on April 19, 2023 in Boston, Massachusetts. An outspoken anti-vaccine activist, RFK Jr. joins self-help author Marianne Williamson in the Democratic presidential field of challengers for 2024. (Photo by Scott Eisen/Getty Images)
“When we use our TeamKennedy email address to set up Instagram accounts we get an automatic 180-day ban,” said the Democrat candidate on Twitter. “Can anyone guess why that’s happening?”
Interesting… when we use our TeamKennedy email address to set up @instagram accounts we get an automatic 180-day ban. Can anyone guess why that’s happening? pic.twitter.com/0G8oRnoXTv
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) June 2, 2023
“To silence a major political candidate is profoundly undemocratic. Social media is the modern equivalent of the town square. How can democracy function if only some candidates have access to it?”
To silence a major political candidate is profoundly undemocratic. Social media is the modern equivalent of the town square. How can democracy function if only some candidates have access to it?
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) June 2, 2023
RFK Jr’s personal Instagram account was banned from the platform in February 2021, at the height of the coronavirus panic, for “repeatedly sharing debunked claims about the coronavirus or vaccines,” per a Facebook (now known as Meta) statement at the time.
In another tweet, the Democrat candidate thanked Twitter owner Elon Musk for allowing him and his campaign to “have a voice.”
Would you like to do a Spaces discussion with me next week?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 2, 2023
In response, Musk offered to host a discussion on Spaces, Twitter’s live audio broadcasting platform, with the candidate.
The nephew of the 35th President, John F. Kennedy, RFK Jr. has become well known in recent years for challenging mainstream narratives about coronavirus and vaccines.
In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News last month, Kennedy slammed the establishment’s embrace of censorship, saying “we’re now in this situation where without free speech, democracy just withers and dies.”
“Free speech is the fertilizer; it’s the sunlight; it’s the water for democracy,” he continued. “There is no time in history where the people who were censoring speech were the good guys.
An economic populist and a critic of open borders, Kennedy has promised to use tariffs to protect American workers if elected President.
The Democrat candidate has also attacked the growing influence of Chinese investment in the American economy, focusing particularly on the communist nation’s purchases of farmland across the country.
Breitbart News has reached out to Facebook for comment.
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election.