Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Instagram account has been reinstated, over a month after he announced his presidential bid, a spokesperson for Meta, the platform’s parent company, said in a statement to CBS News on Monday.
Kennedy, the nephew of the late president John F. Kennedy and son of former U.S. attorney general Robert F. Kennedy, complained last week that his personal account hadn’t been reinstated despite launching his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for president, saying it was “profoundly undemocratic” to not let him on Instagram.
But over the weekend, his account with more than 770,000 followers was back up and running.
“As he is now an active candidate for president of the United States, we have restored access to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s, Instagram account,” a Meta spokesperson said.
A Meta executive said in 2019 the company would not prevent a politician’s speech from its reaching audience.
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Kennedy has been outspoken about his anti-vaccine advocacy. His account was previously removed from Instagram in 2021 after he repeatedly shared “debunked claims about the coronavirus or vaccines,” a spokesperson for Meta said at the time. Instagram and Facebook’s ban on Kennedy’s anti-vaccine group, the Children’s Health Defense, is still intact.
Kennedy kicked off his campaign in Boston in April and called himself a “Kennedy Democrat,” despite being linked to some far-right figures. His challenge to President Biden has little to no chance of succeeding, and his anti-vaccine stance is at odds with the overwhelming majority of Democrats. He announced he will speak about his campaign with Elon Musk on Twitter Spaces on Monday.
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