Twitter suspended Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene from her personal account temporarily on Sunday. The suspension occurred shortly after Greene posted allegations that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer Gabriel Sterling were to blame for potential voter fraud.
Greene issued a fiery response to Sterling’s tweet which claimed that Greene, Doug Collins, and President Donald Trump were to blame for a significant drop-off in Republican turnout. Just over 270,000 less Republicans voted in the runoff elections, as compared to nearly 166,000 less Democrats.
Contrary to Sterling’s claim, Greene stated that Sterling and the entirety of the Secretary of State’s office were to blame. She also claimed that the November 3rd election was stolen, in part due to the increase in absentee ballots.
“When hundreds of people are signing affidavits at risk of perjuring themselves in a court of law with a penalty of going to jail, all to report election fraud, Georgia state leaders should have listened,” wrote Greene. “These people had everything to lose if they were found to be lying while you all risk nothing and ignored their pleas[,] all while you blow hards collect a taxpayer funded paycheck. So little Gabriel, you can tweet all the stupid lies you want, but mark my words, Republican voters in Georgia know exactly who they are blaming. It’s not Trump. And it ain’t me.”
The 1/5 disaster in Georgia lays solely in the hands of state leadership who failed voters in our state.@GaSecofState and @GabrielSterling were begged by Republicans to fix our elections.
They did nothing.
They are to blame, not me, not @realDonaldTrump, not @CollinsforGA. pic.twitter.com/YYuEujDBIB
— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) January 17, 2021
Twitter won’t allow users to reply, retweet, or like the posts “due to a risk of violence.”
Greene’s Communications Director, Nick Dyer, told The Georgia Star News that their team had only received a one-sentence response from Twitter when asked why they’d suspended Greene.
“The account reference has been temporarily locked out for multiple violations of our civic integrity policy,” read Twitter’s explanation.
Twitter’s civic integrity policy, updated this month, states that users can’t use the platform to manipulate or interfere with elections “or other civic processes.”
“This includes posting or sharing content that may suppress participation or mislead people about when, where, or how to participate in a civic process. In addition, we may label and reduce the visibility of Tweets containing false or misleading information about civic processes in order to provide additional context,” wrote Twitter. “We believe we have a responsibility to protect the integrity of those conversations from interference and manipulation. Therefore, we prohibit attempts to use our services to manipulate or disrupt civic processes, including through the distribution of false or misleading information about the procedures or circumstances around participation in a civic process.”
Twitter assigns several levels of repercussions for policy violations. As in Greene’s case, 12-hour suspensions signify either 2 or 3 strikes. 4 strikes necessitates a week-long account lock; 5 or more strikes earns someone permanent suspension.
Dyer added that he’d reached out to Twitter’s representatives, but hadn’t received any further responses.
In a press release shared with The Star News, Greene alleged that social media disfavors and censors conservative points of view. She added that if legislators didn’t take action, the American people would continue to lose their rights and their ability to be heard by those that were elected to represent them.
“The borderline monopolistic stranglehold a few Big Tech companies have on the American political discourse is out of control,” stated Greene. “Congress must act, and act swiftly, to protect free speech in America. Conservative Americans shouldn’t be afraid to speak their mind. They shouldn’t have to fear being cancelled by American corporations where they work, do business, and use services.”
Monday afternoon, she posted a photo of herself on Facebook captioned, “End Big Tech Censorship!”
Although Sterling was the subject of Greene’s posted criticisms resulting in her temporary suspension, he questioned Twitter’s decision to block people for their speech.
“I am not a fan of blocking or suspending people’s accounts. This is especially true for people that either feel they aren’t being heard or those that they look to,” Sterling tweeted late Monday morning. “When @twitter & @Facebook do it, it feeds the underlying resentment. More speech tends to do better long term.”
Twitter has recently purged more than 70,000 accounts because they’d contained content related to QAnon – a conspiracy theory that a cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles runs a global child sex-trafficking ring, fought by President Trump. The platform also noted that it limits controversial accounts’ visibility in searches, replies, and on timelines, as well as prevents those accounts from being recommended to others by the platform.
However, Twitter hasn’t purged accounts related to Antifa – the far-left, loosely organized militant activist movement that terrorized cities like Portland during the various riots in 2020.
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Corinne Murdock is a reporter at The Georgia Star News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to [email protected].
