Search icon

Coronavirus

03rd Jan 2022

Twitter permanently suspends US congresswoman’s account for Covid misinformation

Charlie Herbert

US congresswoman has her twitter account permanently suspended for posting Covid misinformation

On Saturday she tweeted about “extremely high amounts of Covid vaccine deaths” in the US

A US congresswoman has had her Twitter account permanently suspended for repeatedly breaking the platform’s rules around coronavirus misinformation.

Marjorie Taylor Greene had previously had her account suspended on four occasions, but on Saturday she received her ‘fifth strike’ for posting fake news surrounding the vaccine.

Her official congressional account, which is occasionally used by staffers, is still active.

A spokesperson for Twitter said the Greene had been banned for “repeated” violations of its coronavirus misinformation policy. This was launched last March and uses artificial intelligence to identify posts about coronavirus that are misleading enough to cause harm.

Under this policy, two or three strikes earn a 12-hour account lock, four strikes prompt a weeklong suspension and five or more can get an account permanently removed.

Greene had previously had her account suspended for periods ranging from 12 hours to a week, and received her ‘fourth strike’ in the summer for saying that vaccines were failing.

Among her final tweets was one referencing “extremely high amounts of Covid vaccine deaths” in the US.

The Twitter spokesperson said: “We’ve been clear that … we will permanently suspend accounts for repeated violations of the policy.”

Related links:

Greene was a vocal supporter of Donald Trump’s unfounded claims that the 2020 US election was rigged, had previously voiced her support for QAnon conspiracy theories, and had called for violence against Democrats, according to the Guardian.

In a statement posted on social media outlet Telegram, the 47-year-old wrote that “social media platforms can’t stop the truth from being spread far and wide.”

She went on to accuse Twitter of aiding a “Communist revolution” and said: “Social media platforms can’t stop the truth from being spread far and wide. Big tech can’t stop the truth.

“Communist Democrats can’t stop the truth. I stand with the truth and the people. We will overcome.”

Greene claims her account was suspended after tweeting statistics from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, a government database which includes raw data.

More than 825,000 people have died of Covid-19 in the US since the start of the pandemic. On Sunday, Joe Biden’s top medical adviser, Dr Anthony Fauci, said the country had seen an almost “vertical increase” in cases, which now average around 400,000 a day.