Facebook pulls Chantelle Baker’s page
WELLINGTON: Prominent Covid19 conspiracy influencer Chantelle Baker, who was a mainstay of the antiGovernment protest at Parliament earlier this year, has lost her Facebook page ahead of tomorrow’s planned repeat protest.
The social media giant issued the ban on Saturday, Ms Baker confirmed on another Facebook page she runs that is not under her name.
‘‘We’re gone but we’re not out — not quite yet,’’ she told the other page’s roughly 7600 followers in a live video about an hour after receiving the news.
The nowdefunct page under her name had garnered about 97,000 followers.
Ms Baker, the daughter of former New Conservatives leader Leighton Baker, is one of the public faces of the antivaccine and conspiracy movement in New Zealand. She has said she intends to attend the Parliament protest tomorrow.
A recent report by independent research group The Disinformation
Project noted that Ms Baker’s Facebook Live broadcasts — although a ‘‘super spreader’’ of false claims — often had greater engagement than mainstream media during the previous Parliament protest.
She suggested, incorrectly, that Antifa was behind the fires and violence on March 3 when the protest was broken up. Since then, she has posted in support of Russia’s war in Ukraine and continued to share information in conflict with public health advice.
Ms Baker has listed her new Facebook page as a ‘‘media/news company’’ and has said her livestreams showed ‘‘what was actually going on behind the scenes’’ at the previous protest.
In her announcement about the Facebook ban, she lashed out at media organisation Stuff, which featured her prominently in Fire and Fury, an hourlong documentary about disinformation and the Parliament protests that was released last Monday.
She claimed the media organisation pressured Facebook to delete her page, which she described as ‘‘pretty shocking and pretty appalling at the same time’’.
She threatened legal action and to file a complaint with the Commerce Commission. As for Facebook, she said she intended to migrate her content to a new platform that ‘‘isn’t quite finished’’ yet.
Tomorrow’s protest in Wellington, organised by the Freedoms and Rights Coalition, follows similar events in Auckland and Christchurch recently. A counterprotest group is also expected to gather near Parliament.
It comes almost six months on from the 23day antimandate occupation at Parliament, which was brought to a violent and fiery end.
Road closures are expected to be put in place starting last night at the Parliament end of Lambton Quay, lower Molesworth St and Kate Sheppard Pl.
A police spokesman has said unauthorised vehicles would be restricted in the area from last night until the end of the protest. —