The World Health Organization (WHO) has told Instagram of its efforts to remove anti-vaxx content after it emerged that accounts removed from Facebook are still active.
The conspiracy theorist David Icke, who was banned from his parent Instagram site on Facebook in May – as well as from YouTube – after he posted a 5G coronavirus application, still has more than 200,000 followers on Instagram.
The Telegraph found examples of Mr Icke’s Instagram page used to push links to conspiracy videos claiming vaccines were created deliberately to harm people.
Another prominent figure against vaxx was found promoting links to websites with false mortality data on Covid vaccine tests through their Instagram page, which has more than 30,000 followers.
Instagram said it has the same vaccine information policies as Facebook and removes any content or accounts that violate those rules.
Andy Pattison, WHO Manager for Digital Solutions, said the group was in a constant game of “whack-a-mole” as they tried to counter vaccine lies appearing on various social media sites.
He told the Telegraph: “Some accounts removed from Facebook are still active with large fan accounts on Instagram, even though policies for the two companies are similar. Social media companies need to Everywhere take steps to protect users from harmful content across all platforms. “
The comments come with technical giants under a lot of pressure to get down on Covid and vaccine misinformation.
Last year, BP MPs heard NHS pharmacists describe cases where people with severe Covid symptoms had been rushed to hospital because of false news they read on social media.
Facebook has come under special scrutiny for its stand on false vaccine information, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg saying as far back as September that it would not block such content because people should be able to “ concern ”about vaccines.
However, it changed Facebook and Instagram policies drastically in December to overcome vaccine conspiracies.
A spokesperson for Instagram said: “These Instagram accounts contain content that is posted on the corresponding Facebook accounts, and that content does not violate our policies.
“Under our policy to remove Covid’s misinformation leading to impending physical harm, between March and October we removed over 12 million pieces of content from Facebook and Instagram.
“As part of this policy, last month we began removing false claims about Covid-19 vaccines and will regularly update the applications we remove as facts about the vaccines become available. growing. “