Twitter on Sunday banned the personal account of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia and frequent peddler of misinformation, after she tweeted about “extremely high amounts of Covid vaccine deaths.” Greene’s statement was false, and it was her last strike on the platform, literally.
The social media company confirmed to Gizmodo on Sunday that it had suspended Greene’s personal account (@mtgreenee) for “repeated violations” of its COVID-19 misinformation policy, which prohibits users from using Twitter to share false or misleading information about COVID-19 that could cause harm. Greene had more than 465,000 followers on the account.
“We permanently suspended the account you referenced (@mtgreenee) for repeated violations of our COVID-19 misinformation policy,” a Twitter spokesperson told Gizmodo in an email. “We’ve been clear that, per our strike system for this policy, we will permanently suspend accounts for repeated violations of the policy.”
Twitter updated its COVID-19 misinformation policy last year to include a five-strike system. Enforcement actions range from no action on the account (first strike) and account locks (second, third, and fourth strikes) to permanent suspension (fifth strike).
In her tweet, which can no longer be viewed, Greene falsely claimed that there were high deaths associated with the COVID-19 vaccines and included a misleading chart with information from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, according to the New York Times. Anyone can submit reports to this government database, known as VAERS, but they are not verified and do not show causation.
Importantly, VAERS officials themselves have posted a disclaimer on the database’s website about the information collected and says it can’t be used to jump to conclusions about vaccines.
“VAERS accepts reports of adverse events and reactions that occur following vaccination,” officials wrote. “While very important in monitoring vaccine safety, VAERS reports alone cannot be used to determine if a vaccine caused or contributed to an adverse event or illness. The reports may contain information that is incomplete, inaccurate, coincidental, or unverifiable.”
Nonetheless, this doesn’t mean Greene has been kicked off Twitter entirely. The company didn’t suspend her congressional account, @RepMTG, which has more than 393,000 followers. When we asked Twitter why @RepMTG had not been suspended as well since they belonged to the same person, the company said that Greene’s other account was currently not in violation of its rules.
In a statement obtained by CNN after Twitter banned her, Greene accused social media platforms of trying to “stop the truth.”
“Social media platforms can’t stop the truth from being spread far and wide. Big Tech can’t stop the truth,” Greene said. “Communist Democrats can’t stop the truth. I stand with the truth and the people. We will overcome!”
This, of course, is a lie. Because Greene often does not tell the truth.