Liberal MP Craig Kelly booted from Facebook for a week over COVID-19 posts

Facebook has suspended the Liberal MP over his promotion of unorthodox COVID-19 treatments and theories.

Craig Kelly says he supports ‘the government message on vaccinations. I am advocating for treatments in concert with the vaccine’. Picture: Getty Images

Liberal MP Craig Kelly has been suspended from Facebook for at least seven days over his promotion of unorthodox COVID-19 treatments and theories.

Mr Kelly’s temporary ban from Facebook is due to at least five posts he put up early last month promoting drugs such as hydroxychloroquine, and he has called the suspension of his popular social media page a “dark day for freedom of speech”.

Scott Morrison this month publicly rebuked the Liberal MP for the south Sydney seat of ­Hughes for his promotion of unorthodox coronavirus treatments and ordered him to stick to the government health advice, after he went on a podcast with anti-vaccination chef Pete Evans.

Craig Kelly during his stoush with Tanya Plibersek. Picture: Bill Shorten/Instagram

Mr Kelly, who is fighting off a preselection threat ahead of the next election, told The Australian that the Prime Minister’s edict applied only to the vaccine, and he would continue to support early treatment drug options even if they were not backed by chief medical officers.

“I hope this (Facebook) ban is temporary. They went through thousands of my posts and only found five that led to the ban,” he said. “I support the government message on vaccinations. I am advocating for treatments in concert with the vaccine.

“Three of the posts that were banned weren’t even my opinions. They were quotes from highly credentialed scientists. You might not agree with them, but the public have a right to know about these scientists’ views and people can rebut them.”

A Facebook spokesman declined to comment directly on any restrictions on Mr Kelly, but said the social media giant would crack down on any COVID misinformation on its site.

“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,” she said.

Irish professor Dolores Cahill — who leads a minor hard-right anti-Europe party in Ireland — is among the experts quoted in three of the five posts that led to Mr Kelly’s ban. She caused controversy in Ireland after claiming people were immune to COVID after suffering the virus for 10 days.

One of the posts shared an article in The Spectator magazine that profiled Australian gastroenterologist Thomas Barody, in which he promoted the use of ivermectin as an early COVID treatment. Mr Kelly backs the use of ivermectin but chief medical officers do not. The Liberal MP also shared comments from Canadian pathologist Roger Hodkinson, who has claimed COVID-19 was a hoax and masks on children were useless.

Mr Morrison has effectively left Mr Kelly — whom he has previously saved from electoral defeat in his seat — to fend for himself and rebuild support among branch members to salvage his political future.

Since then, Nationals MPs have voiced support for Mr Kelly and some want him to defect to the junior Coalition partner and run as a Nationals MP in Hughes should his local Liberal preselectors disendorse him.

After Mr Kelly received a 30-minute dressing down in Mr Morrison’s office earlier this month, prompted by the MP’s on-air row with Labor frontbencher Tanya Plibersek, he threw his complete support behind the coronavirus vaccine rollout.

The day before the dressing down, Mr Kelly told The Australian that people should “weigh the evidence” before taking a COVID-19 vaccine and would not commit to getting a jab himself.