https://252f2edd-1c8b-49f5-9bb2-cb57bb47e4ba.filesusr.com/ugd/f4d9b9_b7cedc0553604720b7137f8663366ee5.pdf1. Joseph Mercola
2. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
3. Ty and Charlene Bollinger
4. Sherri Tenpenny
5. Rizza Islam
6. Rashid Buttar
7. Erin Elizabeth
8. Sayer Ji
9. Kelly Brogan
10. Christiane Northrup
11. Ben Tapper
12. Kevin Jenkins
• Children’s Health Defense (Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.)
• Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN) (Del Bigtree)
• National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) (Barbara Loe Fisher, Joseph Mercola)
• Organic Consumers Association (OCA) (Joseph Mercola)
• Millions Against Medical Mandates
1 Joseph Mercola
Facebook: Active
Twitter: Active
Instagram: Active
Joseph Mercola is a successful anti-vaccine entrepreneur, peddling dietary supplements and false cures as alternatives to vaccines. Mercola’s combined personal social media accounts have around 3.6 million followers.
Example Violations
This Mercola article included in our sample of URLs posted in anti-vaccine Facebook
Groups claims that “hydrogen peroxide treatment can successfully treat most viral
respiratory illnesses, including coronavirus” has been shared on Facebook 4,600 times.
2 Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Facebook: Active
Twitter: Active
Instagram: Part Removed
Kennedy is a long-standing anti-vaxxer, and his Children’s Health Defense (CHD) hosts a range of anti-vaccine articles.
Kennedy’s account was banned from Instagram on 8 February, yet his Facebook Page
remains active, as does the CHD’s Instagram page.
Kennedy and Children’s Health Defense released a film in mid-March targeting members of the Black and Latino communities with tailored anti-vaccine messages. Facebook and Twitter continue to allow him a platform to promote these false claims.
Example Violations
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. shared this post which contains misinformation about Covid
vaccines posing a threat to pregnant women.
A misleading claim that Hank Aaron’s death was “part of a wave of suspicious deaths”
remains available with a “missing context” label, despite the Medical Examiner
confirming no association.
Here and here, Kennedy promotes misinformation linking Covid vaccines to deaths.
3 Ty & Charlene Bollinger
Facebook: Active
Twitter: Active
Instagram: Active
Ty and Charlene Bollinger are anti-vax entrepreneurs who run a network of accounts that market books and DVDs about vaccines, cancer and COVID-19. In 2020 they launched the United Medical Freedom Super PAC ahead of last year’s United States elections.
The Bollingers have promoted the conspiracy theory that Bill Gates plans to inject
everyone with microchips as part of a vaccination program.
Example Violations
Promoting a debunked story which claims that the Covid vaccine is responsible for
several deaths in Senegal.
The Bollingers have also posted content that violates platform standards on election
misinformation. This post falsely claims the US Presidential election was “stolen” and
promotes the rally the Bollingers spoke at on 6 January.
4 Sherri Tenpenny
Facebook: Part Removed
Twitter: Active
Instagram: Active
Sherri Tenpenny is an osteopath physician who spreads anti-vaccine sentiment and false claims about the safety and efficacy of masks via her social media channels. While her Facebook account has been removed, her Twitter and Instagram are still intact.
Example Violations
Facebook’s policies state that false claims about the safety and efficacy of masks are
prohibited. Tenpenny, who regularly advocates against mask-wearing, is clearly in
violation of that policy here.
On 23 June 2020 Sherri Tenpenny tweeted that the longer you wear a mask, the more unhealthy you get. Tenpenny alleged that masks suppress your immune system.
Tenpenny also posts, “Stop getting tested. If you are getting tested you are part of the problem.” This clearly violates Facebook’s policy against claims that can discourage someone from getting a government-approved COVID-19 test.
After Instagram took down an Instagram Live with disgraced former doctor Andrew
Wakefield, Tenpenny took to Instagram again with Wakefield with a video where
Wakefield calls COVID-19 an “alleged plague,” and errantly discusses a vaccine that “has killed more children than it has saved from the targeted disease.” This video alone contains numerous violations of Facebook’s stated policies yet remains available despite Instagram seeing fit to remove it the first time it was posted.
5 Rizza Islam
Facebook: Removed
Twitter: Active
Instagram: Active
Rizza Islam’s anti-vaccine posts aim to spread vaccine hesitancy amongst African
Americans. While Facebook removed Rizza Islam’s Facebook Page in February, he
continues to post anti-vaccine messages from his Instagram and Twitter accounts.
Example Violations
Rizza Islam promoted the false conspiracy theory that COVID vaccines make women
infertile in a tweet last June.
Rizza Islam recently tweeted that he recovered from COVID in 48 hours by following a special diet.
In this February 2021 post, Islam posts a video which contains contains the claim that vaccines cause autism in higher rates in non-white children.
This post claims that “Satan” is behind the COVID vaccine and discourages audience
members from receiving the vaccine.
In this February 2021 post, Islam suggests that Bill Gates had a role in planning the
pandemic.
6 Rashid Buttar
Facebook: Active
Twitter: Active
Instagram: Active
Rashid Buttar is an osteopath physician and conspiracy theorist known for videos posted to his YouTube channel.
Example Violations
In this Facebook post, Buttar claimed that Covid vaccines cause infertility.
In this video posted to Facebook, Buttar claims that COVID-19 tests have living
microorganisms (discouraging people from getting government-approved tests).
7 Erin Elizabeth
Facebook: Active
Twitter: Active
Instagram: Active
Erin Elizabeth, partner to Joseph Mercola, runs Health Nut News, a prominent ‘alternative health’ website with affiliated newsletter and social media accounts.
Example Violations
This Instagram post claims vaccines are part of a medical industry plan to create “a
chronically-ill population”.
Erin Elizabeth also posted this antisemitic conspiracy theory about the Rothschilds to her Instagram account
8 Sayer Ji
Facebook: Active
Twitter: Removed
Instagram: Part Removed
Sayer Ji runs a popular alternative health website, GreenMedInfo.com, and affiliated
social media accounts that promote pseudoscience and anti-vaccine misinformation.
Despite his GreenMedInfo accounts being removed by Twitter and Instagram, it is still
available on Facebook.
An article on GreenMedInfo.com falsely claimed that "The FDA knows that rushed-tomarket COVID-19 vaccines may cause a wide range of life-threatening side effects,
including death."
Example Violations
In this March 2021 post Ji shares claims that the Pfizer vaccine has killed more people
than COVID.
9 Kelly Brogan
Facebook: Removed
Twitter: Active
Instagram: Active
Kelly Brogan is the partner of fellow alternative health entrepreneur Sayer Ji. She claims to practice “holistic psychiatry” and sells a range of books and courses from her website.
Example Violations
Brogan has posted messages encouraging Instagram users not to wear masks.
In a widely viewed video in March, 2020, Kelly Brogan claimed that “there is potentially no such thing as the coronavirus” because “it’s not possible to prove that any given pathogen has induced death.”
A post on Kelly Brogan’s website titled “Why We Stay Asleep When Covid-19 Is Trying to Wake Us Up” cites a number of COVID conspiracy theories, including that the pandemic was planned. CrowdTangle analytics show it has been shared on Facebook nearly 11,000 times.
10 Christiane Northrup
Facebook: Active
Twitter: Active
Instagram: Active
Christiane Northrup is an obstetrics and gynecology physician who has embraced
alternative medicine and anti-vaccine conspiracies. She has used her social media
accounts to spread disinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine.
Example Violations
Here, Northrup links to a Google Doc that recommends HCQ and Ivermectin among
several substances as cures for COVID.
Here she makes the baseless claim that vaccines cause an 800% increase in chronic
illness.
11 Ben Tapper
Facebook: Active
Twitter: Active
Instagram: Active
Ben Tapper is a chiropractor with a growing following on social media. He has routinely posted COVID disinformation and spoken out against masking.
Example Violations
12 Kevin Jenkins
Facebook: Active
Twitter: Active
Instagram: Active
Kevin Jenkins is an anti-vaccine activist with a growing social media presence who has appeared at public events with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Jenkins has called vaccines a “conspiracy” to “wipe out” black people and is a co-founder of the Freedom Airway & Freedom Travel Alliance, a company founded in late 2020 to help its members travel around the world without observing any masking, quarantining, vaccination, or other pandemic control measures.
Example Violations
In a now-deleted Facebook Live from DC on January 6th, Kevin Jenkins stands on stage and tells the crowd that Black people are being targeted with the vaccine. “They are spending a trillion dollars to convince you [the Black Community] that it’s ok to kill yourselves [with the COVID vaccine].”
Here Jenkins claimed that the Black community is being targeted for experimentation
with the vaccine.
In a now-deleted post, he also accused Hank Aaron of being paid off to take the vaccine -calling him a “modern-day slave catcher.”
