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Lifestyle

Pete Evans vows to never be 'censored ever again' after quitting Facebook

5 minutes to read
Controversial Australian celebrity chef Pete Evans. Photo / File

Controversial Australian celebrity chef Pete Evans. Photo / File

news.com.au

Just days after publicly quitting Facebook, Pete Evans has found a new platform to share his post, vowing he won't be censored.

Pete Evans has shared a series of posts on a "free speech" alternative social media platform, after vowing to delete his Facebook account and free himself from "being censored".

Evans announced on Friday he'd be closing his Facebook account, and would be moving to US social media site Parler.

He also revealed he'd be taking his business to a premium subscriber-based model, charging $10 a month or $100 a year for access to meal plans and recipes and content available through his own website.

While Evans has been on the Parler platform since July this year, he had only posted one automated message before Thursday, when he started using the account in earnest.

Since then, his account has shared a string of YouTube and Instagram videos spruiking voter fraud conspiracies to do with the US election, the "take-down of the global cabal" and a video from far-right website Breitbart, mocking President-elect Joe Biden's stutter.

The former TV chef also shared an image of a Jesus-like figure meditating, with the words: "Success is measured not by what you have, but by what you have given up".

In another post, his account appeared to take aim at the UN's climate change agenda, sharing an image of a unicorn balloon, with the words "The Trojan Unicorn. Communism dressed as environmentalism UN's goals for sustainable development."

Evans also shared a video of a distressed woman weeping about the coronavirus pandemic, which she called "mass blind obedience".

"It started with the masks, now we're being coerced into forced medical examinations and just around the corner there is mandatory vaccines," the crying woman said.

"I feel this too. Such a heavy heart now while others are in blissful naivety," one of Evans' fans commented on the video.

Another fan agreed, saying they'd "cried all yesterday".

Parler is popular with US right-wing commentators and politicians, and gained significant notoriety throughout 2020, as mainstream social media brands slapped warning labels on tweets from US President Donald Trump.

Conservatives embraced the company's #Twexit campaign, pushing for a boycott of Twitter, as they claimed big tech companies were trying to silence their voices on social media.

The founder of Parler, CEO John Matze, told Forbes the website does not engage in fact checking, and said the site is run on discourse.

"The best thing is for everyone to engage with a bad idea and shut it down through public discourse," he said. Matze said in the same interview that liberals made up a "very minute share of the population" on the site.

Evans has previously warned his fans there was a fake Parler account in his name, urging them to visit his official site.

On Friday he quit Facebook with a post to "all the amazing fb community we have built over the years … yes the 1.5 million of you."

"For me it is time to say goodbye to this platform and thank you all for sharing your stories of beautiful health transformations and for giving me a bloody good laugh and cry along the way.

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"Get your popcorn out as this is not the end, however, just a beautiful new transition into a space of love, education, knowledge and not being censored ever again."

It came after Evans shared neo-Nazi imagery in a cartoon on social media last week, and was dropped by his long time publishing partner Pan Macmillan Australia, and dumped from an upcoming appearance in reality show I'm a Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here!

Book retailer Dymocks announced it was in the process of "removing his books from our website and have advised our stores to return their stock as offered by the publisher".

Coconut water brand Natural Raw C announced its intention to end its relationship with Evans, saying it was "horrified and saddened by the religious and anti-Semitic undertones" in the cartoon.

BIG W also abandoned Evans, saying it would remove his book titles from its shelves.

Cookware brand Baccarat also distanced itself from Evans, as did Readings bookstore, and essential oil company Doterra.

Evans' Kiwi wife Nicola Robinson Evans also returned to social media over the weekend, sharing videos of Evans nuzzling with their horse Olly in an Instagram story.

Robinson Evans also shared videos of a flower from their garden, but did not address the neo-Nazi cartoon shared by Evans.

She had previously not posted on her Instagram account since November 6, two weeks ago.