Republican lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene won’t be able to tweet for the next week after Twitter suspended her account for posting misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccines.
The company imposed a one-week suspension on Greene’s account over a tweet that argued the US Food and Drug Administration should not fully approve the COVID-19 vaccines.
“There are too many reports of infection & spread of COVID-19 among vaccinated people,” she claimed. “These vaccines are failing & do not reduce the spread of the virus & neither do masks.”
The tweet was enough to violate Twitter’s rules against sharing false or misleading information about COVID-19. In December, the company instituted a policy to crack down on tweets covering falsehoods, incomplete or out-of-context information regarding the vaccines.
It’s true COVID-19 can still infect vaccinated people. However, the US Centers for Disease Control has found the vaccines remain highly effective at preventing the virus from causing severe illness, although the protection isn’t 100 % guaranteed. “More than 164 million people in the United States have been fully vaccinated as of August 2, 2021. Like with other vaccines, vaccine breakthrough cases will occur, even though the vaccines are working as expected. Asymptomatic infections among vaccinated people will also occur,” the CDC adds.
Greene’s original tweet remains up. But Twitter has placed a label under the post, calling it “misleading.” The same label links to a page with information from health experts explaining why masks and vaccines can stop the spread of COVID-19.
The New York Times points out this marks the fourth strike Greene has received for violating Twitter’s rule on spreading COVID-19 misinformation. Greene, who has been against mask-wearing and vaccine policies to stop the pandemic, received a third strike in July for arguing COVID-19 was “not dangerous for non-obese people and those under 65.” If she receives a fifth strike, then under Twitter’s policies she’ll be permanently banned from the platform.
On Facebook, Greene characterized the suspension as “BIG TECH speech police.”
