Twitter permanently suspended the personal account of far-right politician Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) for repeated violations of the social network’s policy prohibiting COVID misinformation.
Greene’s @mtgreenee account on Twitter has been permanently suspended; she still has access her official congressional account, @RepMTG. Before Twitter banned the @mtgreenee account, it had 465,000 followers. The account’s bio read, “Congresswoman for GA-14, Christian, Wife, Mom, Small Business Owner, Proud American 100% Pro-Life Pro-Gun Pro-Trump.”
Twitter banned Greene after she tweeted false information on New Year’s Day (Saturday, Jan. 1) about COVID vaccines. In a post on Twitter, she in part called vaccines “dangerous” and made the bogus claim that “extremely high amounts of Covid vaccine deaths are ignored.” The U.S. currently is experiencing a massive spike in COVID cases related to the spread of the omicron variant of the virus.
“We permanently suspended the account you referenced (@mtgreenee) for repeated violations of our COVID-19 misinformation policy,” a Twitter rep said in a statement to Variety. “We’ve been clear that, per our strike system for this policy, we will permanently suspend accounts for repeated violations of the policy.”
Greene is the first member of Congress to be kicked off Twitter for violating its rules. Twitter booted Donald Trump a year ago after he praised the rioters attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Greene’s official accounts on Facebook and Instagram remain active. Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, did not immediately respond to requests for comment about whether she has violated those services’ policies.
Twitter had previously temporarily suspended Greene’s account for posting content with misinformation about COVID and the 2020 presidential election. Last August, she was suspended for a week from Twitter after claimed COVID vaccines “are failing & do not reduce the spread of the virus & neither do masks.” That came after Twitter less than a month earlier froze Greene’s account for 12 hours after she falsely tweeted that the coronavirus was only dangerous for people who are obese or over 65. In January 2021, Twitter suspended her account temporarily for spreading conspiracy theories about supposed voter fraud during the 2020 election.
(Excerpt) Read more in: Variety