Popular social media platform, Twitter has permanently suspended the personal account of U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia, for violating its COVID-19 misinformation policy.
This development came after she recently posted about “extremely high amounts of Covid vaccine deaths”. According to the company, she included a misleading chart with information from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, a national vaccine safety surveillance program run by the CDC and FDA.
Harping on the development, a spokeswoman for Twitter, Katie Rosborough, said “We’ve been clear that, per our strike system for this policy, we will permanently suspend accounts for repeated violations of the policy”.
The company went further to say Greene had a fifth “strike,” which means her account will not be restored. It would be recalled that Twitter issued a fourth strike in August after she posted that the vaccines were “failing,” and she received a third strike in July when she posted that COVID-19 wasn’t dangerous and that vaccines shouldn’t be mandated.
However, Greene’s official congressional account remains active because posts on that account haven’t violated the company’s policies, reports said.
It is important to note that Twitter allows accounts to submit an appeal and could reverse the suspension if the violating post turns out to be factual. The company has banned users from sharing misinformation that could lead to harm and has permanently banned accounts in rare cases, including the one of former President Donald Trump.
Taking to Telegram, Greene said Twitter “is an enemy to America and can’t handle the truth,” reports said.
Reports said the VAERS database has been cited in numerous posts with coronavirus falsehoods, in which people use raw unverified data to back up ideas about vaccine side effects. The FDA website states that VAERS reports “generally cannot be used to determine if a vaccine caused or contributed to an adverse event or illness.”
“Some events may occur coincidentally after the administration of a vaccine while others may in fact be caused by a vaccine”.
“As a result, if a safety signal is found in VAERS, further studies can be conducted.”
It would be recalled that in 2021, Twitter posted a “COVID-19 misleading information policy” that says users can’t share false or misleading information about COVID-19 that may lead to harm. Those who violate the policy are subject to strikes and could face a permanent ban if they repeatedly share misinformation about the virus.
In the policy, Twitter wrote: “Even as scientific understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to develop, we’ve observed the emergence of persistent conspiracy theories, alarmist rhetoric unfounded in research or credible reporting, and a wide range of false narratives and unsubstantiated rumors, which left uncontextualized can prevent the public from making informed decisions regarding their health, and puts individuals, families and communities at risk”.
