Meta recently restored Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s account on Instagram. This happened after Kennedy and his allies complained the initial ban benefited incumbent President Joe Biden.
On June 3, 2023, Kennedy announced he would be interviewed by Twitter CEO Elon Musk on Twitter Spaces. Musk invited Kennedy in an effort to further establish Twitter as the pro-free speech social media platform.
Instagram Banned Kennedy From Its Platform
On June 1, 2023, Kennedy posted on Twitter that any time his campaign team used its email address to create accounts on Instagram, they would receive an automatic 180-day ban on the platform.
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
Kennedy continued by noting that muzzling the voice of a prominent political candidate is a blatantly “undemocratic” maneuver.
He likened social media to the modern-day equivalent of the town square. So, any attempts by social media giants to limit discourse would be an infringement on free speech.
For Kennedy, the banning of political candidates from social media platforms would prevent democracy from properly functioning.
Kennedy Ban: Assault on Free Speech
However, due to the stink that Kennedy made on Twitter, Facebook, which is Instagram’s parent company, began reaching out to Kennedy.
On June 4, Newsmax published a report revealing that Instagram restored Kennedy’s account, which was initially banned in 2021.
That happened due to his criticism of COVID-19 vaccines and his general opposition to several of the measures that the medical establishment promoted to stave off the pandemic at the time.
REPORT: Instagram on Sunday lifted its suspension against the account of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. https://t.co/t6aLxJ4iCZ pic.twitter.com/QX2DUNxBnF
— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) June 5, 2023
Instagram company spokesman Andy Stone noted that because Kennedy is currently a presidential candidate in the 2024 presidential election, his account was officially restored.
Kennedy was slated to appear in an interview with Musk on June 6.
Kennedy is the nephew of John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States. He is currently challenging Biden for the Democratic Party’s nomination in the 2024 presidential election.
Due to the unconventional nature of his political platform, especially his anti-COVID-19 vaccine views, Kennedy has received significant criticism from legacy media outlets and members of the political establishment.
This article appeared in TheDailyBeat and has been published here with permission.
