Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor
Greene has been temporarily suspended by Twitter over “misleading” posts about
COVID-19. The micro-blogging site said the Georgia representative’s account
will be in “read-only mode” for a period of 12 hours.

The 47-year-old is an ardent critic of
vaccines and the use of masks and issued an apology last month after comparing mask-wearing
norms to the treatment of Jews by Nazi Germany, The BBC noted.

Greene posted two tweets on Monday, wherein
she argued that the vaccines are not required as COVID was not a threat to
people under the age of 65 and not obese.

In response, she said that “These Big Tech companies”,
backed by Washington DC, were curbing free speech.

Also Read | Federal judge rules in favour of COVID vaccine in Indiana university

In a statement to The New York Times, she
said, “These Big Tech companies are doing the bidding of the Biden regime to
restrict our voices and prevent the spread of any message that isn’t
state-approved.”

She was earlier suspended from Twitter in April,
although the social media giants restored her account shortly, clarifying that
the ban was a mistake, caused by an automated moderation system.

President Joe Biden has called for social
media companies to ramp up action against misinformation surrounding COVID and
vaccines on their platforms. “They’re killing people,” Biden said last week,
adding, “The only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated”.

American health officials have said that
the current surge in cases and deaths is almost exclusively hitting
unvaccinated communities.

Also Read | Kevin McCarthy names 5 Republicans to House panel on Capitol riots

Twitter has repeatedly banned users for
misinformation, having introducing a new policy with penalty for users in
March.

As per the new rules, a 12-hour ban is given for second and third offences
and a fourth violation will result in a week-long suspension. The account will
be banned if its policies are banned for a fifth time.

In January, the company permanently banned
former president Donald Trump’s account for what it said were posts inciting
violence after his supporters stormed the US Capitol.