J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Marjorie Taylor Greene, the first-term member of Congress from Georgia, styles herself as a warrior for free speech. In recent years, she has issued hate-filled tweets, encouraged violence on social media, and promoted QAnon conspiracies. In response, lawmakers quickly stripped Greene of her House committee assignments, and Twitter temporarily suspended her account several times.
But on Sunday, Twitter finally suspended her personal account, @mtgreenee, for good, following what the company said were “repeated violations of our COVID-19 misinformation policy.” In a statement to the New York Times, Twitter added: “We’ve been clear that, per our strike system for this policy, we will permanently suspend accounts for repeated violations.”
Twitter’s action came after Greene published a 19-tweet thread on New Years day lamenting the status of unvaccinated people as a “subclass” and falsely claiming that “extremely high” numbers of Covid vaccine deaths are being ignored. She concluded the since-deleted thread with a call to arms: “Before Covid, We were free. After Covid, We are no longer free. The question is will the people break free from covid psychosis before it’s too late.”
Earlier this year, Greene claimed on Twitter that her Crossfit exercise routine would protect her from Covid. She also argued that schools and businesses should not shut down to prevent Covid spread, since cancer kills a comparable number of people. (This is a logically flawed argument for a host of reasons, not the least of which being that unlike Covid, cancer is not spread through human contact.)
Twitter’s decision does not extend to Greene’s congressional Twitter account, @RepMTG, which is still active.
Greene responded to Twitter’s suspension on GETTR, a conservative social media platform run by a former adviser to Donald Trump’s presidential campaigns.
“Twitter is an enemy to America and can’t handle the truth,” she wrote. “That’s fine, I’ll show America we don’t need them and it’s time to defeat our enemies.”
