Twitter bans personal Greene account for COVID-19 misinfo

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Twitter on Sunday banned the personal account of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for multiple violations of its COVID-19 misinformation policy, according to a statement from the company.

Greene's account was permanently suspended under the “strike” system Twitter launched in March, which uses artificial intelligence to identify posts about the coronavirus that are misleading enough to cause harm to people. Two or three strikes earn a 12-hour account lock; four strikes prompt a weeklong suspension, and five or more strikes can get someone permanently removed from Twitter.

Her office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Twitter had previously suspended the account for periods ranging from 12 hours to a full week.

The ban applies to Greene's personal account, @mtgreenee, but does not affect her official Twitter account, @RepMTG.

A Greene tweet posted shortly before her weeklong suspension in July claimed that the virus “is not dangerous for non-obese people and those under 65.” According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people under 65 account for nearly 250,000 of the U.S. deaths involving COVID-19.

Greene previously blasted a weeklong suspension as a “Communist-style attack on free speech.”