Elon Musk came to the rescue of Democratic candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. It all started this Friday when the politician claimed that he was unable to create a campaign account on Instagram. As Kennedy Jr. explained, every time he tried, he received a ban from the company owned by Mark Zuckerberg blocking his profile for 180 days:
Interesting… when we use our TeamKennedy email address to set up @instagram accounts we get an automatic 180-day ban. Can anyone guess why that’s happening? pic.twitter.com/0G8oRnoXTv
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) June 2, 2023
Kennedy Jr. also claimed that Twitter did allow him to have an account to run his campaign and have a voice on his social network while explaining that his personal profile on Instagram had been blocked for several years and prevented him from keeping in touch with his more than 900,000 followers:
.@instagram still hasn’t reinstated my account, which was banned years ago with more than 900k followers.
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) June 2, 2023
The Democratic politician ended his plea by assuring that Instagram's reaction was "profoundly undemocratic" and that social media platforms could not act as the Meta-owned company did since they had become "the town square" and should act as such:
To silence a major political candidate is profoundly undemocratic. Social media is the modern equivalent of the town square. How can democracy function if only some candidates have access to it?
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) June 2, 2023
Faced with Kennedy Jr.'s accusation, the social network tried to justify the decision to block the Democratic candidate's personal account. The account of John F. Kennedy's nephew was closed by the company on Feb. 10, 2021, following a series of posts speaking out against COVID vaccines.
That was reason enough for the company, according a Facebook spokesperson. The company decided to remove the Democratic candidate's profile on Instagram: "We have removed this account for repeatedly sharing false claims about coronavirus or vaccines," he claimed. However, the Facebook page that Robert Kennedy Jr. had, with exactly the same posts, was not subject to censorship.
Robert Kennedy Jr. allies with Elon Musk
Elon Musk did not hesitate to act after learning about Kennedy Jr.'s problems with Instagram. The CEO of Twitter responded to the tweet in which the politician complained about the treatment he received from Zuckerberg and made him the following proposal: he could explain everything that happened in a live event organized by the company:
Would you like to do a Spaces discussion with me next week?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 2, 2023
The Democratic candidate didn't hesitate to agree, even proposing a time and date to hold a conversation about the ban with Musk:
Yes! How's Monday at 2 p.m. ET?
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) June 2, 2023
Elon Musk has not yet confirmed whether the meeting will take place on that day and at that time, but it does appear that, following the filing of Ron DeSantis' presidential election candidacy, the Twitter boss has found a new politician to chat with on his Twitter Spaces.