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- Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has been suspended from Twitter for a week.
- The Republican lawmaker tweeted that the COVID-19 vaccines are “failing.”
- Twitter labeled the tweet as misleading.
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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Twitter account has been suspended for a week after she tweeted misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine.
The temporary ban came after the Georgia Republican wrote on Twitter on Monday evening that the vaccines are “failing.”
“The FDA should not approve the covid vaccines. There are too many reports of infection & spread of #COVID19 among vaccinated people,” Greene tweeted. “These vaccines are failing & do not reduce the spread of the virus & neither do masks. Vaccine mandates & passports violate individual freedoms.”
Coronavirus cases have surged in the US as the highly contagious Delta variant sweeps the country. Unvaccinated people make up the vast majority of new serious infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Fully vaccinated people can still get COVID-19, as no vaccine is 100% effective, per the CDC. But according to the evidence, the vaccine is incredibly successful at preventing severe illness, hospitalization, and death.
Twitter has flagged Greene’s tweet, which cannot be replied to, shared or liked, as “misleading.”
The tweet “was labeled in line with our COVID-19 misleading information policy. The account will be in read-only mode for a week due to repeated violations of the Twitter Rules,” a Twitter spokesperson said, per CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan.
This is not the first time Greene has been temporarily booted from the social media platform over spreading misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic. Last month, she was kicked off Twitter for 12 hours after claiming that the virus is not dangerous to young people, which public health experts have refuted.
In March, Twitter suspended Greene’s account for 12 hours as she faced a challenge from House Democrats to expel her from Congress over her history of racist and incendiary comments. A Twitter spokesperson said at the time that the temporary ban was made “in error.”
“We use a combination of technology and human review to enforce the Twitter Rules across the service,” Twitter said in a statement. “In this case, our automated systems took enforcement action on the account referenced in error. This action has been reversed, and access to the account has been reinstated.”
Greene, at the time, accused the platform of silencing her voice and siding with Democrats.
The freshman lawmaker also got barred from Twitter for 12 hours on January 17 over violations of its civic integrity policy. The lock came after Greene posted tweets falsely claiming the 2020 presidential election was stolen and called on supporters of former President Donald Trump to “mobilize.” The election was fair and accurate, according to federal and state election officials.
Conspiracy theories and false claims about the pandemic and COVID-19 have circulated heavily on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. The companies have pledged to crack down on the misinformation.
A spokesperson for Twitter did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.