Twitter on Sunday permanently suspended the personal account of Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene for spreading COVID-19 related misinformation.
“We permanently suspended the account you referenced (@mtgreenee) for repeated violations of our COVID-19 misinformation policy,” Twitter said in a statement. “We’ve been clear that, per our strike system for this policy, we will permanently suspend accounts for repeated violations of the policy,” the social media giant said, confirmed a CNN correspondent.
Also Read | Who is Marjorie Taylor Greene?
Her official congressional account @RepMTG is still operational.
Responding to the ban, she 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!”
Also known by her initials MTG, Marjorie Taylor Greene is a far-right politician, a businesswoman who is an ardent critic of vaccines and the use of masks. She has compared mask-wearing norms to the treatment of Jews by Nazi Germany.
Notably, Twitter had previously temporarily restricted Greene’s account for sharing misinformation about the 2020 presidential elections as well as COVID-19. In January, she had spread false claims about voter fraud in Georgia, and in July and August, she violated the COVID-19 policy with inaccurate tweets on vaccines.
In August, for instance, she had tweeted that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) “should not approve the COVID vaccines,” and went on to claim that the vaccines were “failing”, CNN reported.
Twitter’s misinformation policy came into force in March last year. A single strike may not incur an action, but the account will be locked if it constantly violates the policy.
Five or more strikes will result in permanent suspension, the company said.
Greene’s suspension from Twitter comes almost a year after the platform permanently suspended former president Donald Trump from accessing his account, citing the likelihood of further incitement of violence following the Capitol hill attack in January.
The New York Times reported last month that Greene, along with Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia, had been fined over $100,000 for refusing to adhere to the House’s mask rules set by Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California.