Craig Kelly’s Facebook posts are mysteriously disappearing – and no one can explain it

Posts by the controversial Liberal MP for Hughes, Craig Kelly have been disappearing from his Facebook timeline almost as fast as the prolific Facebook correspondent has been posting.

Kelly denies vehemently that he has been deleting them, but monitoring by some of his constituents who are members of groups such Craig Kelly Must Go, show that hundreds of his more incendiary posts, particularly about China and alternative treatments for Covid-19 are no longer on public view.

The reason behind the disappearances is a mystery. Facebook was unable to explain why posts were no longer visible and was still investigating.

The posts can be retrieved via a Google search but do not appear on Kelly’s timeline.

Groups opposing Craig Kelly had been keeping logs of Kelly’s posts and discovered that many had disappeared.

An analysis by Guardian Australia found almost 70% of posts by Kelly during November and December 2020 were no longer visible, including several strident posts about the threat China poses to Australia. Kelly posted more than 300 times in November and December.

For instance under the headline, THE SURRENDER TO CHINA, Kelly wrote on December 17: “Never forget those pushing the Paris Climate Accord and ‘Net Zero by 2050’ are simply surrendering our nation’s economic competitive advantages to China. No wonder the Communist Party of China laughs [at] the radicalised green extremists in Australia – and treat them as their “useful idiots”.

Using Google search the post can be retrieved.

Other missing posts relate to Kelly’s denial of global warming, including posts that dispute that natural disasters are increasing in intensity.

During December last year, Kelly posted, often several times a day, about the benefits of anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine and the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin as treatments for Covid-19. But several of these have disappeared as well.

Also gone are many of Kelly’s posts on “the Great Reset”, a phase that has been latched onto by conspiracy theory groups, such as QAnon, as proof of a sinister agenda by the World Economic Forum, that hosts a conference of billionaires each year in Davos.

For example Kelly’s post on December 8: THE GREAT RESET: GET READY TO EAT WEEDS, which lampooned an article from the forum arguing for crop diversification including cultivating species currently regarded as weeds, has disappeared.

“And they cheerfully inform us that ‘weeds can be nutritious and tasty’ and of course, eating weeds can ‘help tackle climate change’,” Kelly wrote in the now-invisible post.

But some of his “Great Reset” posts remain, such as one from 27 November 2020, which posted a cartoon that borrows the QAnon interpretation of Biden’s inauguration speech.

Biden called for “the nation to heal.” But conspiracy groups, including QAnon followers insist he meant “a time to heel” and that Biden is bent on crushing Trump supporters.

Kelly told the Guardian he has not deleted any posts and that he stood by all the material he put up on his Facebook page.

He said the only material removed from his page had occurred because Facebook had flagged three posts which linked to a video of evidence given to a US Senate committee by Dr Pierre Kory.

Kory is an ardent supporter of ivermectin in the treatment of Covid-19.

The video of Kory’s testimony has been removed from YouTube and Facebook has also been flagging posts that cite it.

Kelly said he was disputing Facebook’s ruling.

“Removing testimony under oath is one of the worst, most egregious forms of censorship there is,” he said. “He was speaking on behalf of a group of doctors, he’s someone with qualifications,” Kelly said.

Kelly said in January that he had been called by a Facebook representative who asked him to remove a post he made on Ivermectin and said it was an example of “a very dark time in human history when scientific debate and freedom of speech is being suppressed.”

A number of the doctors supporting the use of ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine who appear in videos on Craig Kelly’s site go on to argue that official resistance to authorising these treatments stems from a plot by big pharma to exploit new markets for vaccines while sidelining cheaper drugs.

Kelly regularly posts articles about people who claim to have had adverse reactions or that query the state of the science about the safety of vaccines.

But he told the Guardian he was not anti-vaccination.

Kelly has done several interviews with groups that are opposing the rollout of vaccines. This week’s interview with noted anti-vaxxer and celebrity chef Pete Evans and a corridor confrontation with Labor frontbencher Tanya Plibersek prompted the prime minister to act.

Kelly later released a statement saying he supported the government’s vaccine rollout.

Asked why he had chosen to appear on Evans’s YouTube channel, Kelly said: “I don’t believe in cancel culture. I don’t agree with the Guardian, but I am talking to you. I believe in free speech.”

In December, Kelly did a long interview with a far-right anti-vaccination group, which is vehemently opposing any mandating of vaccines and whose site includes material to assist people in opposing vaccination.

“Over my dead body will I vote for anything that makes a vaccine mandatory. People should have freedom of choice,” he said in the interview.

“If someone could present the evidence to me about why I should take the vaccine, I would make my own decision.” He explained he would evaluate the risks against the likely impact of Covid-19 , which he noted varied among age groups.

Kelly also queried the necessity of taking it in Australia when community transmission was close to zero. However he said he would have no hesitation in taking other treatments, such as a combination of hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin and zinc if he travelled overseas to a country affected by Covid, even though these have not been approved in Australia for treatment of Covid.

“I think the bureaucrats in this country have got it wrong,” he said.

*** This article has been archived for your research. The original version from The Guardian can be found here ***