Facebook says it has removed Pete Evans’ page on the platform for repeatedly breaching its misinformation policies around COVID-19.
The celebrity chef has frequently posted COVID-19 conspiracy theories and misinformation along with anti-vaccination and anti-mask content to various social media channels during the pandemic.
Book publisher Pan MacMillan was also among several brands and companies to sever ties with Evans last month after he shared a cartoon on Facebook that included a symbol associated with neo-Nazis.
On Wednesday night, a Facebook spokesperson confirmed the ‘Chef Pete Evans’ page, which had more than one million followers, had been removed from the platform.
“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,” they said in a statement.
“We have clear policies against this type of content and we’ve removed Chef Pete Evans’ Facebook page for repeated violations of these policies.”
Facebook had previously removed individual posts from Evans for violating its misinformation and harm policy.
His company was fined more than $25,000 by the Therapeutic Goods Administration in April for promoting a device that he claimed in a Facebook livestream could be used to cure COVID-19.
Earlier this week, News Corp reported Evans had urged residents in Sydney’s Northern Beaches not to get tested for COVID-19 amid a new outbreak in the area.
Last month, Evans said he would be quitting Facebook and moving to US social media website Parler to free himself from “being censored”.
However, he continued to share posts on the platform throughout December.
As of Wednesday night, he had not posted anything or spoken publicly about the action taken by Facebook.
His account on Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, is still active and has more than 278,000 followers.
