Liberal MP Craig Kelly Is Fuming After Being Banned From Facebook For A Week

Craig Kelly has been banned from posting on his Facebook page for a week after breaching the social media site's policy on misinformation.

The controversial Liberal MP's temporary suspension was the result of him posting three links to medical experts' unproven views on Covid-19 treatments.

One of the posts was a claim from professor Dolores Cahill about the unsubstantiated benefits of hydroxychloroquine, another was from professor Thomas Borody promoting ivermectin to treat coronavirus, and the third was from pathologist Roger Hodkinson, who claimed masks are 'useless' for children.

A Facebook spokesperson said: "We don't allow anyone to share misinformation about Covid-19 that could lead to imminent physical harm.

"We have clear policies against this type of content and will remove it when we become aware of it."

Mr Kelly has been pulled up on his promotion of unsupported, unverified or misleading posts about the pandemic on Facebook and even had a heated run in with Labour's Tanya Plibersek.

After that moment went viral around Australia, Prime Minister Scott Morrison pulled Kelly in for a 'dressing down' and the MP agreed to stick to the facts from the top doctors.

However, clearly that didn't last long and he went back to posting the unproven views a short time later, resulting in his ban.

Speaking to the Guardian Australia, the Member for Hughes revealed his clear frustration at the move.

"I strongly object to the ban, there are absolutely no grounds whatsoever," Kelly told Guardian Australia. "The points are a legitimate point of view. I'm not posting my opinions, I'm posting the opinions of medical experts."

He believes that ideas shouldn't be silenced, adding that 'whether [the views are] right or wrong is a matter of debate, but their views should be debated'.

When speaking to Gizmodo, Mr Kelly said he gets a lot of the 'fringe studies' he posts on his Facebook page from 'emails and messages on my Facebook Messenger'.

But he's very concerned about the Facebook ban and worries what precedent it sets for others.

"I would say this is an attack on free speech. It's an attack on the contest of ideas and political sphere, and nothing that I posted can be deemed as incorrect or false in any way whatsoever," he said.

Gizmodo reports the ban was put in place last week and was lifted yesterday (February 16).

Featured Image Credit: ITV

Topics: Australia

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

@stewartperrie