Kim Kardashian West freezing Instagram, Facebook use over spread of ‘hate, propaganda, and misinformation’

Celebrity Kim Kardashian West has announced she is freezing both her Facebook and Instagram accounts in support of the #StopHateforProfit campaign, which accuses the firms of allowing groups to spread misinformation and bigotry.

“I can’t sit by and stay silent while these platforms continue to allow the spreading of hate, propaganda and misinformation – created by groups to sow division and split America apart,” Kardashian announced on Tuesday. 

Including an image promoting the #StopHateforProfit campaign, the reality television star encouraged others to join her in the “freezing” of their accounts.

“Misinformation shared on social media has a serious impact on our elections and undermines our democracy,” she wrote.

Kardashian, whose long-running series ‘Keeping Up with the Kardashians’ was recently announced as ending, has somewhat of a vested interest in this November’s election as her husband, rapper Kanye West, is running for president of the United States, representing his own independent party. He has lashed out at what he deems fake news theories about his candidacy being spread on social media, including an anonymously-sourced report saying he was running as a spoiler campaign for the Republican Party. 

Meanwhile, Kardashian herself has been accused of spreading misinformation through social media in the past. One 2015 post promoting the morning sickness drug Diclegis (doxylamine succinate and pyridoxine HCl) was flagged by the FDA, and the social media star took to her Instagram to correct her original message, saying it was “incomplete because it did not include any risk information or important limitations of use for Diclegis.”

In March, she was also accused of spreading misinformation about Covid-19, after a post sharing a message from her sister, which critics said suggested a psychic had predicted the coronavirus pandemic in 2008.

The #StopHateforProfit campaign, which Kardashian linked in her Twitter and Instagram profiles, calls for social media companies to “prioritize people over profits” by not allowing “bigotry, racism, antisemitism, and disinformation” to be published on their sites. The boycott began in July following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. 

Other celebrities, like ‘Avengers’ star Mark Ruffalo, have also pledged to “freeze” their accounts in protest. 

Kardashian is the seventh most-followed account on Instagram, with 188 million followers. She has also amassed some 30 million followers on Facebook, leading some to predict her protest of the platforms could lead to others following suit.

Facebook stock value tumbled a few dollars immediately following Kardashian’s tweets being published, though it has steadily risen since then. 

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