Chef Pete Evans booted off Facebook

Celebrity chef and conspiracy theorist banned from Facebook after he repeatedly shared COVID-19 misinformation.

less than 2 min read

10:00PMDecember 23, 2020.

Updated 7:29AMDecember 24, 2020

Facebook’s dumping of Evans is one of several separations the controversial former television chef has faced in the past few months.

Celebrity chef, conspiracy theorist and anti-vaxxer Pete Evans has been banned from Facebook after he repeatedly shared COVID-19 misinformation “that could lead to imminent physical harm”.

Facebook’s dumping of Evans is one of several separations the controversial former television chef has faced in the past few months, including the end of contractual agreements with publisher Pan MacMillan, Woolworths and Network 10.

“We don’t allow anyone to share misinformation about COVID-19 that could lead to imminent physical harm or COVID-19 vaccines that have been debunked by public health experts,” a statement attributed to a Facebook spokesman read.

“We have clear policies against this type of content and we’ve removed Chef Pete Evans’ Facebook Page for repeated violations of these policies.”

However, on Wednesday night the Facebook-owned Instagram still featured Evans’ account, with posts featuring misleading information about vaccinations.

While the move from Facebook has been applauded by many on Twitter, it is unlikely to cause any difficulty for Evans who shifted to social media platform Telegram several months ago. Evans also has a large following on Parler, used by many right-wing extremists and conspiracy theorists.

He has recently started a website, for which he charges subscribers $100 a year.

Facebook has previously removed individual posts by Evans for violating its Misinformation & Harm Policy but allowed him back despite repeated claims by Evans that coronavirus is a hoax.

Evans is reported to have suggested that humans aren’t capable of spreading the coronavirus.