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Marjorie Taylor Greene suspended from Twitter after telling Trump supporters to ‘mobilise’

Ms Greene suspended after tweeting misinformation about voter fraud, Twitter locks her out of account because of 'multiple violations of our civic integrity policy’

Gustaf Kilander
Monday 18 January 2021 21:19 GMT
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Marjorie Taylor Greene says she will file impeachment articles against Joe Biden on his first day
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Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene was suspended from Twitter for 12 hours after sending out a now-deleted tweet telling Trump supporters to "mobilize". ProPublica preserved the deleted tweet, which said: "I encourage all Americans, not just the 75 million people who voted for President Trump, to mobilize and make your voices heard in opposition to these attacks on our liberties."

She was suspended after also tweeting misinformation about election fraud. A Twitter spokesperson told NPR that Ms Greene "has been temporarily locked out for multiple violations of our civic integrity policy".

Ms Greene said in a statement: "Just days after the Silicon Valley Cartel launched a multi-front attack to chill free speech in America by deplatforming President Donald Trump and purging an unknown number of conservatives, Twitter has decided to suspend my personal account without explanation."

Before she was suspended, she tweeted that the "disaster in Georgia lays solely in the hands of state leadership who failed voters in our state". President-elect Joe Biden was the first Democrat to win the state since 1992. Georgia, which has long been seen as a safe red state for Republicans, also elected two Democrats to the Senate on January 5, both by very slim margins.

Ms Greene criticised Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger and top election official Gabriel Sterling, saying they "were begged by Republicans to fix our elections. They did nothing," despite that there's no evidence of any widespread irregularities in Georgia or in the rest of the country.

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Twitter labelled the tweet, saying: "This claim about election fraud is disputed, and this Tweet can't be replied to, Retweeted, or liked due to a risk of violence."

Both Mr Raffensperger and Mr Sterling have received death threats after not working to overturn Georgia's election in Mr Trump’s favour.

Writing in The Atlantic on Saturday, Republican Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse said "The newly elected Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene is cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. She once ranted that 'there’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take this global cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles out, and I think we have the president to do it.'"

Ms Greene added in her statement that "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. They shouldn't be scared into submission by Socialists who want to end their way of life".

Ms Greene's Twitter suspension comes a little more than a week after Twitter banned President Trump from the platform, citing “the risk of further incitement of violence” following the deadly insurrection at the US Capitol.

Ms Greene was elected to represent Georgia’s 14th District in November. She's gained large followings on social media in part by posting incendiary videos and comments and has also embraced QAnon, a far-right U.S. conspiracy theory centred around the debunked belief that President Donald Trump is waging a secret campaign against enemies in the “deep state” and a child sex trafficking ring they say is linked to Democrats.

As of January 12, Twitter had suspended more than 70,000 accounts associated with QAnon. Twitter has said it is taking action against online behaviour “that has the potential to lead to offline harm".

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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