The Defender interviewed six of the 12 people on the list. They shared how being included on the list affected their businesses, their relationships and their constitutional right to freedom of speech.
In March 2021, one year into the covid-19 pandemic, the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (“CCDH”) published its list of “leading online anti-vaxxers,” dubbed “The Disinformation Dozen.”
The impact was immediate.
Social media giants began de-platforming some of the people on the list.
Key Biden administration officials publicly referenced the list and its members and accused them of spreading dangerous “misinformation” and “disinformation.”
The “Twitter Files,” released in 2022 and 2023, showed that Big Tech worked with the [US] Government to censor not only those on the “Disinformation Dozen” list, but also anyone with a significant online following who published content that contradicted the official covid-19 narrative. That included Children’s Health Defense (“CHD”), which on 17 August 2022, was kicked off major social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram. CHD wasn’t on the “Disinformation Dozen” list – but its founder and then-chairman, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was.
“When the ‘Disinformation Dozen’ list was published, Kennedy was still chairman of CHD,” said CHD CEO Mary Holland. “Silencing his voice meant silencing ours – because at the time, his name was synonymous with that of CHD, the organisation he founded and led.”
When Kennedy left CHD to run for US President, it was no longer possible for the government and the CCDH to censor him. “His social media channels were restored,” Holland said. “But to this day, CHD is still being censored.”
Much has changed since 2021. Kennedy is now US health secretary, leading the Trump administration’s ‘Make America Healthy Again’ (“MAHA”) agenda.
Many of the “Disinformation Dozen” continue to actively write, produce documentaries and advocate for health freedom...<<<Read More>>>...
