Early Friday morning, Twitter suspended Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) from its platform for 12 hours, according to the controversial Congresswoman’s campaign. A reason for this latest suspension was not immediately clear, but in the past, Twitter has suspended Greene for “spreading misinformation,” as CNBC summarized. Greene was a supporter of the false idea that Donald Trump was the rightful winner of the 2020 presidential election, and rioters at the U.S. Capitol in January used this idea as an explicit pretense as they rampaged through the building and murderously hunted top figures in the government.
According to CNBC, “Spokespeople for Twitter did not immediately confirm the suspension or provide comment on Greene’s claims,” although the platform kicked Trump off its site entirely, so they’re clearly willing to take at least some decisive action against prominent political figures. Some, of course, have complained about Trump’s Twitter ban as a supposed violation of free speech, but Trump was using Twitter to spread delusional election lies that are connected to multiple deaths via the Capitol rioting. Pretending like the ban represents some kind of Big Tech conspiracy against conservatives — or whatever — seems purposefully misrepresentative of the actual facts of the situation.
UPDATE: Greene is back on Twitter. She posted a petulant tweet demanding an emailed reply from Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and announcing that she’d apparently been banned in “error.”
I was just told @Twitter suspended me for 12 hrs in “error,” on the same day Dems introduced a resolution to expel me from Congress.
What a coincidence?
Twitter’s little error wasn’t resolved until after 12 hrs.@jack which employee made the “error?”
Reply to my email, Jack
— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) March 19, 2021
Greene is also facing a resolution calling for her expulsion from Congress that Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) introduced on Friday. Gomez announced plans to prepare that resolution back in January after CNN revealed records of past social media activity from Greene including repeated expressions of apparent support for executing prominent Democrats, like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.). Greene made a show of distancing herself from past remarks after facing criticism, but she’s used violent language while in office as well. For instance, at one point she said that “MAGA reinforcements are on the way.”
On Friday on the House floor, Gomez commented as follows, discussing Greene:
‘I believe some of my Republican colleagues, and one in particular, wish harm upon this legislative body. And I’m not saying this for shock value. It’s the conclusion I drew after a member of Congress advocated violence against our peers, the speaker and our government. It is what I believed after this chamber was turned into a crime scene just 10 weeks ago… I take no joy in introducing this resolution, but any member who incites political violence and threatens our lives must be expelled, and I’ll do everything I can in my power to protect our democracy and keep all my colleagues safe.’
Greene, who would only be expelled if two-thirds of the chamber supported Gomez’s resolution, has characterized criticism that she has faced as the work of a “mob,” and she has spoken with ex-President Donald Trump himself, garnering the former president’s support.
