Irish TV presenter Aisling O’Loughlin banned from Instagram for spreading Covid-19 conspiracy theories

An Irish TV presenter has been removed from Instagram for ‘repeatedly sharing harmful misinformation’ related to Covid-19 and vaccines.

Aisling O’Loughlin, best known as one of the former hosts of the entertainment and fashion programme Xposé, has become notorious on social media in recent months for her anti-lockdown posts, which she shared from her home in Provence, France. 

The 43-year-old shared videos to her feed and story in which she announced she would not be taking the Covid-19 vaccine, which she called ‘experimental’.

Vaccines have been extensively tested by medical officials and have proven highly effective in reducing the spread of Covid-19, as well as the severity of the virus’s symptoms.

O’Loughlin, who was one of the presenters of Xposé on Irish channel TV3 from 2007 until 2016, also alleged that face masks contain ‘parasitic worms’, and claimed that stars working for the Irish national broadcaster RTÉ had been paid off by pharma companies.

She had previously been criticised on social media for her videos, in which she called the vaccination the programme ‘the biggest scandal the world has ever seen’.

However, after O’Loughlin attempted to link footballer Christian Eriksen’s collapse during Denmark and Finland’s Euro 2020 match on Saturday to the vaccine, the mother-of-three’s Instagram page has been removed.

A representative for Facebook confirmed: ‘Aisling O’Loughlin’s Instagram account has been permanently removed from our platform for repeatedly sharing harmful misinformation and fact-checked hoaxes related to the vaccine and Covid-19.

‘We are taking aggressive steps to fight harmful misinformation about Covid-19 and approved vaccines and remove violating content that is brought to our attention.’

O’Loughlin had shared a video after the match, saying: ‘We’re talking about Christian Eriksen, he’s only 29, the Danish guy who dropped on the pitch from a heart attack.

‘We’re just talking about whether it’s a justifiable question to put it out there, was it related to the jab or the so called vaccination? Now, I would say it’s absolutely justifiable in light of what is going on globally and all the evidence that has come initially from Israel about the effects of the so-called vaccine with young men and teenage boys.’

Eriksen is recovering after suffering a cardiac arrest; it was confirmed that he did not have Covid nor had he been vaccinated. 

Prior to O’Loughlin’s Instagram ban, her account had been de-prioritised in the app’s search feature, although remained active.

Speaking about her shadow ban, the former presenter said: ‘I was thinking to myself, if I do get de-platformed I think I’m going to move on. It will be a sign that I’ve outgrown Instagram and that it’s time to move. 

‘So I’m not sure if I’m going to do a backup account. I don’t think so…I think I’ll just find another space.’

Some of O’Loughlin’s posts had been tagged with an advisory stating her claims were misleading, after the news website TheJournal.ie debunked some of her more frequent claims about vaccines and the virus.

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