Twitter said Monday it was suspending spokesperson Marjorie Taylor Greene from its service for 12 hours after posting messages that violated its policy on sharing misleading information about Covid.
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Ms. Greene, a longtime opponent of vaccines and masks as tools to combat the pandemic, argued in tweets on Sunday and Monday that Covid-19 is not dangerous to people unless they are obese or over 65, and said vaccines should not be mandatory.
In Ms. Greene's home state of Georgia, cases have increased by 193 percent in the past two weeks.
Twitter said Ms. Greene’s tweets constituted misinformation and suspended her from the service until Tuesday. The company also added labels to Ms. Greene’s posts about vaccines, calling them “misleading” and highlighting information about the safety of vaccinations.
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In a statement, Ms. Greene said Silicon Valley have colluded with the White House to attack free speech. She alleges that the companies are working with the government to push its own line on vaccines.
Twitter took action after President Biden called on social media companies to do more to combat the spread of misinformation about vaccines on their platforms.
On Monday, the president said that specific users were responsible for spreading misinformation. The company should do more to combat the “outrageous misinformation” spreading on its platform instead of taking our comments as a personal affront, Mr. Biden added.
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Twitter has long banned users from sharing misinformation about Covid that could cause harm to other people. In March, the company introduced a policy that spelled out the penalties for sharing false news about the virus and vaccines.
Ms Greene was previously suspended by Twitter in April, but the company said it was an error caused by one of its automated systems for detecting spam and abuse.
"Everyone knows it was a LIE and it wasn't a mistake," Ms. Greene said after her suspension was lifted.
