Twitter has suspended the account of Dr Robert Malone, a prominent US antivaxx campaigner. Dr Malone who has over 500,000 followers, was suspended by the microblogging platform for spreading falsehood about the Pfizer mRNA vaccine.
Dr Malone who has become an outspoken critic of mass vaccine, was involved with the development of the mRNA technology some decades ago. It is not clear if he was booted out of Twitter by automation or by human.
Dr Malone’s argument against the jab is always centered on inadequate testing to warrant mass vaccination, especially in children.
Following his suspension, Dr Malone posted comments on his other social media pages, saying his suspension shows he “must have been on the mark, so to speak.”
Continuing, he said:
“It also means we lost a critical component in our fight to stop these vaccines being mandated for children and to stop the corruption in our governments, as well as the medical-industrial complex and pharmaceutical industries.”
Social media platforms have been up in arms against vaccine misinformation. Hundreds of false information is removed everyday that fail to meet certain requirements—with vaccine misinformation constituting a reasonable percentage.
Despite his claims though, Dr Malone cannot be credited as the sole inventor of the mRNA technology. While it is current to say that he co-authored a paper on the tech as far back as the 80s, it was Dr. Katalin Karikó and Dr. Drew Weissman that are commonly credited with creating the technology, reports the Metro.
Following the FDA’s approval of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for children age five to eleven, Facebook vowed to remove false vaccine use on children. The social media giant has been in the forefront on war against false claims about vaccines.
Kids were not in the picture at the start of the fight against COVID-19 vaccine misinformation, but this of course will change following the FDA approval. The approval, though an emergency one, will most likely increase misinformation about the vaccine.
“Following the FDA’s authorization of COVID-19 vaccination for children, we’re announcing steps to promote reliable information to parents on our apps, including in-feed messages for more communities and new ad campaigns,” Kang-Xing Jin, Head of Health said.
Facebook, which recently changed its name to Meta, said it will start enforcing its “policies on harmful content related to children and the COVID-19 vaccine.”
