Twitter Permanently Bans Marjorie Taylor Greene For Repeated Covid-19 Misinformation
Topline
Twitter introduced Sunday it has completely suspended the non-public account of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) for violating the platform’s Covid-19 misinformation insurance policies, clamping down after quite a few warnings to the outspoken politician over her repeated and spurious claims in regards to the pandemic and vaccines.
Marjorie Taylor Greene’s private account was completely suspended from twitter.
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Key Information
In a press release to Forbes, Twitter mentioned it “completely suspended” Greene’s private account (@mtgreenee) for “repeated violations” of its Covid-19 misinformation insurance policies.
The platform—which operates a five-strike system with escalating punishments for every infraction of the misinformation insurance policies—confirmed Greene obtained her fifth strike, which leads to everlasting suspension.
Whereas it’s unclear exactly what tweet prompted Greene’s ban—the account is now clean—the congresswoman reportedly promoted a conspiracy that the federal authorities is ignoring “extraordinarily excessive quantities of Covid vaccine deaths,” based mostly on a database of reported vaccine unwanted side effects (VAERS), according to a screenshot seen by the Unbiased.
Specialists warn the VAERS database, which vaccine skeptics often and misleadingly use to query vaccine security, is an unreliable measurement of vaccine security as it’s based mostly on unverified and voluntary public stories which may be incomplete, inaccurate or unrelated to the vaccine in query.
Greene beforehand obtained earlier strikes for posts falsely claiming coronavirus vaccines have been “failing” and that Covid-19 is simply dangerous to the overweight or aged.
Twitter mentioned Greene’s Congressional account (@RepMTG) will stay lively as tweets from it haven’t violated the platform’s guidelines.
Essential Quote
In a rebuttal on messaging platform Telegram, Greene decried an obvious double customary used to evaluate her content material and that of different politicians and figures on Twitter, and mentioned Twitter “is an enemy to America and may’t deal with the reality.”
Key Background
All through the pandemic, social media platforms like Twitter and Fb have confronted calls to do extra to stem the relentless tide of misinformation circulating on-line. Whereas the platforms have been lengthy identified to take away posts and ban customers who shared misinformation and conspiracies, many accused them of not being clear sufficient in regards to the scale of the issue. Twitter stepped up efforts to sort out Covid-19 misinformation in March, explaining a few of its insurance policies, and added warning labels to posts containing misinformation.
Tangent
Greene’s suspension comes nearly a 12 months after Twitter banned former President Donald Trump following the January 6 rebellion. The platform mentioned Trump’s tweets risked inciting additional violence and supported those that falsely believed he gained the presidential election.
Additional Studying
Twitter Completely Bans Trump (Forbes)
Marjorie Taylor Greene Says She’s ‘Eradicating’ Holocaust Comparisons From Her Previous Rebukes Of Covid Measures (Forbes)
The Most Influential Spreader of Coronavirus Misinformation Online (NYT)
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