5 Facts About The Suspension Of Georgia Marjorie's Twitter Account For Spreading COVID-19 Misinformation

Member of Congress United States (US) Georgia Marjorie Taylor Greene.(photo: facebook screenshot)

JAKARTA - Twitter has again suspended the account of US Congressman Georgia Marjorie Taylor Greene for repeatedly violating the platform's rules regarding COVID-19 misinformation.

Even though Greene's personal account @mtgreenee is permanently suspended, she can still tweet with her government account @RepMTG.

"We've made it clear that, in accordance with our strike system for this policy, we will permanently suspend accounts for repeated violations of the policy," said Twitter spokeswoman Katie Rosborough.

Here are five facts regarding the news of the suspension of Greene's Twitter account, summarized by VOI from The Verge and CNN International, Monday, January 3.

Twitter Permanently Blocks Private Non-Government Accounts Greene

Greene's personal account, @mtgreenee, is known to often be caught tweeting COVID-19 misinformation, and he has been repeatedly reprimanded by Twitter. Greene, a far-right Republican, tweets most frequently from his personal account @mtgreenee, which has over 465,000 followers.

However, it's unlikely that Greene won't stop there, as he still has access and can tweet from his official congressional account @RepMTG, which has over 386,000 followers.

Known to Often Spread Hoaks

Greene, a Georgia lawmaker, has a long history of embracing baseless conspiracy theories, and he's been known to frequently tweet false claims about elections, the Capitol uprising and more, since he won his seat in November 2020.

Twitter had previously temporarily restricted access to Greene's account for sharing misinformation about the 2020 presidential election and COVID-19.

Greene's Tweet That Caused His Account to Be Suspended

On his personal account, Greene tweeted a misleading graphic purported to show deaths from the COVID-19 vaccine, which he said had been ignored.

Americans are encouraged to submit about adverse events following a COVID-19 vaccination to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System, or VAERS. VAERS is a database that stores information about potential adverse reactions to vaccines, including the COVID-19 vaccine.

The tweet was sent by Greene at 1:46 p.m. ET during New Year's celebrations. However, according to CNN International, many side effects including death have been reported, but very few are causally linked to the vaccine. All COVID-19 vaccines available in the US have been scientifically proven to be very safe and highly effective.

Twitter Implements This Reprimand System

Twitter implemented a five-strike system in March 2021, which locks users' accounts if they post tweets containing false information about COVID-19.

The more strikes a user receives, the longer their account will be temporarily banned. However, if a user receives five strikes, their account will be permanently suspended.

Greene's Response

In response to this, Greene posted on his Telegram and Facebook accounts saying, "Twitter is America's enemy and can't handle the truth," said Greene.

“Social media platforms cannot stop the truth from spreading far and wide. Big Technology can't stop the truth. I stand with the truth and the people. We will win!” he added.