SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A California state senator who was shoved by an anti-vaccine activist says Facebook is deliberately giving a platform to violence by not removing a video of the incident.
Democratic Sen. Richard Pan was walking on a street near the California Capitol on Wednesday when 54-year-old Kenneth Austin Bennett confronted him with a camera. Video of the incident later shows Bennett shoving Pan in the back.
The Sacramento Police Department confirmed it cited Bennett for misdemeanor assault and released him.
A video of the confrontation is on Facebook. Thursday, Pan stood on the Senate floor and said he had asked Facebook to remove the video, but he was told "it's not violent enough."
"Facebook is deliberately giving a platform to this violence, and perhaps inciting other people to do the same," Pan said.
Representatives for Facebook did not immediately respond not a request for comment.
Facebook's community standards on violence and criminal behavior state the company tries "to prevent potential offline harm that may be related to content on Facebook," including removing "language that incites or facilitates serious violence."
Earlier this year, Facebook said it was beginning to remove access to some of its fundraising tools to "pages that violate our vaccine misinformation policies." The company said it was also blocking certain hashtags on Instagram that are known to contain health-related misinformation.
Pan, a medical doctor, has been a target of protests because he has authored several bills that seek to limit exemptions for child vaccinations. This year, he has a bill that would crack down on doctors who sell fraudulent medical exemptions.
Anti-vaccine activist Kenneth Austin Bennett has been cited for assault after pushing Sen. Richard Pan near the Capitol. Bennett live-streamed the confrontation. The video appears to show Bennett questioning Pan in the street about vaccines. Pan responds and continues to walk while smiling before he is shoved in the back.