Civil rights groups are asking Facebook to permanently remove Marjorie Taylor Greene's pages and campaigns from the platform.
According to a letter from the groups to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg: “Facebook allowed Greene to exploit its platform to spread dangerous lies and boost her own popularity for years without taking action.”
Before taking office, the Georgia politician had posted on social media various beliefs that stemmed mainly from conspiracy theories. For example, she said that the attacks were a hoax, that President Barack Obama, who is a Christian, was secretly a Muslim, that a California wildfire was started by a laser beam from space, and so on.
Facebook, following a report by Media Matters, removed some of Greene's comments for violating its policies. Facebook also deleted an image of her holding a gun next to photos of three Democratic Party politicians.
“We have removed content from politician Marjorie Taylor Greene that violates our policies and will continue to do so if she posts additional content that violates our rules,” Facebook spokesman Andy Stone said. “Our policies prohibiting hate speech and incitement to violenceapply to everyone.”
However, according to Igor Volsky, director of Guns Down America (one of the 16 groups that sent Facebook the letter), Facebook played a crucial role in Green's rise to power.
“It’s clear that her behavior and her language are incredibly dangerous, but I think what we’ve also realized is that it’s not just about her. There are structures that allow for the conspiracies and the lies that she’s spreading, in order to find a very large audience. And a large part of that audience has come through Facebook,” Volsky said.
Marjorie Taylor Greene's communications director, Nick Dyer, accused Democrats of not believing in and supporting "free speech."
“The leftist mob wants to stop and cancel anyone who doesn’t support their Marxist ideology,” he said in a statement. “Congresswoman Greene is the biggest threat to their socialist agenda and that’s why they hate her so much.”
Furthermore, in the past, Marjorie Taylor Greene has openly supported the Qanon, and yet has won a seat in Congress.
Last week, Greene said that in the past she had naively believed and been influenced by things she read online and for which she is now being accused.
Faced with the loss of her commission duties, Marjorie Taylor Greene deleted some of her previous social mediain a last-ditch effort to avoid punishment.
He also said that the 2001 terrorist attacks “ absolutely happened ” and that he no longer believes in the QAnon conspiracy theory .
“During my campaign, I never said any of those things,” he said. “Since I was elected to Congress. Those were words of the past and those things don’t represent me, they don’t represent my district and they don’t represent my values.”
Source: USA TODAY
