Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal (WA) said on Sunday that Twitter’s permanent ban on Republican Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene (GA) is “a little too late” and that it’s a good thing her voice was taken “out of the mix.”
As Landon covered, Greene’s personal Twitter account was permanently suspended from Twitter on Sunday over her “repeated violations” of the platform’s COVID-19 misinformation policy.
"We permanently suspended the account you referenced (@mtgreenee) for repeated violations of our COVID-19 misinformation policy. We’ve been clear that, per our strike system for this policy, we will permanently suspend accounts for repeated violations of the policy," a Twitter spokesperson said in a statement.
As Landon mentioned in his report, Greene posted a Twitter thread on Saturday about life before and after the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic where she claimed that there are “extremely high amounts of covid vaccine deaths.” Greene’s office told the Washington Examiner that the thread caused her suspension from Twitter, but the platform did not confirm whether or not this was the case.
Following her suspension from the platform, Greene published a statement on Telegram where she said that “Twitter is an enemy to America and can’t handle the truth” and “I’ll show America we don’t need them and it’s time to defeat our enemies.”
"Maxine Waters can go to the streets and threaten violence on Twitter, Kamala and Ilhan can bail out Black Lives Matter terrorists on Twitter, CNN and the rest of the Democrat Propaganda Media can spread Russia collusion lies, and just yesterday the Chief spokesman for terrorist IRGC can tweet mourning Soleimani, but I get suspended for tweeting VAERS statistics,” Greene said in the statement.
Greene was temporarily suspended from the platform in August for alleging that the COVID-19 vaccine and masks do not help in mitigating the spread of the virus.
Twitter’s COVID-19 misleading information policy states that tweets are in violation of the policy if they advance claims as facts, are false or misleading based on widely available information, and have a likelihood of causing serious harm.
On MSNBC’s “The Sunday Show with Jonathan Capehart,” Jayapal reacted to the news of Greene’s suspension from Twitter and said that social media companies need to do more to squash the spread of misinformation.
"It’s no secret that our social media companies have been part of their algorithms promoting disinformation," Jayapal said in the interview. "And I think that these steps are important but, frankly, a little too little and a little too late.”
"The reality is it’s not just Marjorie Taylor Greene. All over Twitter, social media, Facebook, all of these companies have been using algorithms that are just about clickbait, not about truth. And so if we are going to take on the disinformation that’s out there, the big lie, and everything that goes along with it, then yes, this is a part of it but it’s got to be much, much more,” she added. “That said, I think it’s just as well that we take one voice that is deliberately spreading disinformation out of the mix as much as possible.”
Watch Jayapal’s remarks below.
.@RepJayapal on Rep. Taylor Greene’s Twitter suspension: “It's no secret that our social media companies have been… promoting disinformation, and I think that these steps are important but frankly a little too little and a little too late.” #SundayShow pic.twitter.com/FO9W5VGsLF
— The Sunday Show with Jonathan Capehart (@TheSundayShow) January 2, 2022