Twitter on Sunday permanently suspended the personal account of U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who represents Northwest Georgia, after the company said she had violated its COVID-19 misinformation policies.
Twitter said that Greene had a fifth "strike," which meant that her account will not be restored. The company had issued her a fourth strike in August after determining she falsely posted that the vaccines were "failing." Greene was given a third strike less than a month before that when she had tweeted that COVID-19 was not dangerous for people unless they were obese or over age 65 and said vaccines should not be required.
Greene's official congressional account, @RepMTG, remains active because tweets from that account did not violate the service's rules. Her personal account, @mtgreenee, was the one taken offline.
"We've been clear that, per our strike system for this policy, we will permanently suspend accounts for repeated violations of the policy," Katie Rosborough, a Twitter spokeswoman, said in a statement.
Her suspension comes as coronavirus cases have surged again in the United States from the highly infectious omicron variant. The pandemic has killed more than 30,000 people in Georgia.
Twitter has long banned users from sharing misinformation about the coronavirus that could lead to harm. In March, the company introduced a policy that explained the penalties for sharing lies about the virus and vaccines. People who violate that policy are subject to escalating punishments known as strikes and could face a permanent ban if they repeatedly share misinformation about the virus.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Greene issued a statement in response to the suspension.
"Twitter is an enemy to America and can't handle the truth," it said. "That's fine, I'll show America we don't need them and it's time to defeat our enemies. They can't successfully complete a Communist revolution when people tell the truth. 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!"
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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