Social media companies aggressively censored doctors critical of the COVID-19 vaccines and lockdowns. Now, the joke is on Big Tech as two of those doctors will help advise the Trump administration on vaccine policies.
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Wednesday that he had already appointed eight replacements for the 17 newly fired, Biden-appointed members of a federal vaccine advisory panel. Among these appointees are Dr. Martin Kulldorff, an epidemiologist formerly affiliated with Harvard and the FDA, and Dr. Robert Malone, an mRNA research pioneer and vaccine expert. Both Malone and Kulldorff were repeatedly censored by social media platforms as they challenged mainstream COVID-19 narratives.
In an X post addressing the removal of the 17 former panel members, Kennedy wrote: “On Monday, I took a major step towards restoring public trust in vaccines by reconstituting the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP).” Sec. Kennedy continued, “I’m now repopulating ACIP with the eight new members who will attend ACIP’s scheduled June 25 meeting. The slate includes highly credentialed scientists, leading public-health experts, and some of America’s most accomplished physicians. All of these individuals are committed to evidence-based medicine, gold-standard science, and common sense.”
Big Tech repeatedly targeted Kulldorff’s content, as recorded in MRC’s unique CensorTrack database. In March 2021, for instance, Twitter (now X) labeled one of Kulldorff’s tweets “misleading” when he critiqued the idea of indiscriminately vaccinating everyone against COVID-19 regardless of age or condition. Soon after, Twitter locked Kulldorff’s account for arguing that masks were ineffective protection against the virus. In August of that year, LinkedIn deleted two of Kulldorff’s posts, one that advertised his interview on the “public health fiasco” of COVID-19 and the second on an Icelandic epidemiologist saying mass vaccination could not stop the progress of the virus.
Besides Kulldorff’s personal experience of censorship, the Great Barrington Declaration, which he co-authored, also became the target of harsh censorship. In October 2020, Reddit moderators removed the declaration from two subreddit forums. In February 2021, Facebook deleted the declaration’s official page altogether. Furthermore, the Twitter Files revealed that Twitter effectively shadowbanned Kulldorff’s co-author, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, now National Institutes of Health director, by placing his account on a “Trends Blacklist” — likely due to his pinned tweet of the Great Barrington Declaration.
Big Tech likewise suppressed Malone. In June 2021, for example, LinkedIn restricted his account after he shared concerns about the mechanism of the vaccine. In December of that year, Twitter suspended Malone reportedly after he shared information criticizing Pfizer’s six-month COVID-19 vaccine data. According to Malone, the data showed that “Pfizer's COVID-19 inoculations cause more illness than they prevent.” In January 2022, Malone said LinkedIn censored him again, this time banning his account without prior warning or explanation.
Free Speech is under attack! Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
