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Twitter has permanently suspended Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene’s personal account for repeatedly violating the platform’s rules on COVID-19 misinformation, as noted in a report by CNN. Since the ban only affects Greene’s personal Twitter account, @mtgreenee, she can still access and tweet from her governmental account, @RepMTG.
In a statement to The Verge, Twitter spokesperson Katie Rosborough explains that the platform “permanently suspended” Greene’s account “for repeated violations” of the platform’s COVID-19 policies. “We’ve been clear that, per our strike system for this policy, we will permanently suspend accounts for repeated violations of the policy,” she adds.
Twitter implemented a five-strike system in March 2021, which puts a lock on users’ accounts if they post tweets containing misinformation about COVID-19 — the more strikes a user accrues, the longer they’re temporarily barred from their account. If a user receives five strikes, however, their account gets permanently suspended. Twitter didn’t confirm which tweet was Greene’s final strike.
Greene responded to the situation in a post on Telegram and Facebook. “Twitter is an enemy to America and can’t handle the truth,” Greene states. “Social media platforms can’t stop the truth from being spread far and wide.” She also claims she was suspended for tweeting out data from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), a database that stores information about potential adverse reactions to vaccines — including the COVID-19 vaccines.
Last year, Greene was suspended from Twitter several times for violating the platform’s policies. Her account was temporarily banned for violating Twitter’s civic integrity policy, and was later suspended on two separate occasions after tweeting misleading information about COVID-19.