Twitter on Sunday banned the personal account of far-right US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene for multiple contraventions of the platform’s COVID-19 misinformation policy, the latest strike against the firebrand whose embrace of conspiracy theories has been called “a cancer” for the Republican Party and led the US House to boot her from committees.
The Georgia Republican’s account was permanently suspended under the “strike” system Twitter launched in March, which uses software to identify posts about COVID-19 that are misleading enough to cause harm to people. Two or three strikes earn a 12-hour account lock. Four strikes prompt a weeklong suspension. Five or more strikes can result in permanent removal.
In a statement on the messaging app Telegram, Greene blasted Twitter’s move as “un-American.” She wrote that her account was suspended after posting statistics from the US Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, a government database that includes unverified raw data.
Photo: AFP
“Twitter is an enemy to America and can’t handle the truth,” Greene wrote. “That’s fine, I’ll show America we don’t need them and it’s time to defeat our enemies.”
Twitter previously suspended Greene’s personal account for periods ranging from 12 hours to a week. The ban applies to Greene’s personal account, @mtgreenee, but does not affect her official Twitter account, @RepMTG.
The first-term lawmaker has repeatedly stirred controversy over inflammatory commentary.
On social media, she has voiced support for racist views, unfounded QAnon conspiracy theories such as the lie that the 2020 US presidential election was stolen and calls for violence against Democratic politicians, including US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
In February last year, US Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called her embrace of conspiracy theories and “loony lies” a “cancer for the Republican Party.” The Democratic-led House that same month tossed her from her two committee assignments, the US House Committee on Education and Labor as well as the House Committee on the Budget.
In July, Twitter suspended Greene for a week after US President Joe Biden urged social media companies to take stronger action against bogus vaccine claims that are “killing people.”
Twitter has defended its efforts to keep dangerous misinformation about COVID-19 off its platform, saying it has removed thousands of posts and challenged millions of accounts worldwide.
Among Greene’s final posts was one on Saturday that falsely referenced “extremely high amounts of covid vaccine deaths,” according to posts stored in the Internet Archive.
Last week, Greene also boasted on Twitter about talking to former US president Donald Trump by telephone. She said she had received Trump’s permission to clarify his stance that he is against vaccine mandates, although he encourages people to get the vaccine and booster.
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