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Twitter cites rules against violent speech in restricting Marjorie Taylor Greene's account

An executive said Twitter had conducted a sweep to remove more than 5,000 tweets and retweets, including Greene's, that referred to a “Trans Day of Vengeance.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., speaks during a House Oversight and Accountability Committee on Capitol Hill on Jan. 31, 2023.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., in Washington on Jan. 31.Al Drago / Bloomberg via Getty Images file

Twitter temporarily restricted Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's congressional account Tuesday after she repeatedly posted a graphic that referred to a “Trans Day of Vengeance.”

According to a screenshot Greene, R-Ga., posted on her personal account, Twitter said it had “temporarily limited” some of her account’s features, with full functionality scheduled to be restored in seven days.

The post in question, which Twitter has since removed, included a graphic that Greene said was for an antifa event in Washington, D.C., next month.

“Antifa is organizing a Trans Day of Vengeance," Greene wrote in accompanying text.

Ella Irwin, Twitter's vice president of product overseeing trust and safety, said the company had conducted a "sweep" to remove more than 5,000 tweets and retweets of the graphic, including Greene's.

"We do not support tweets that incite violence irrespective of who posts them," Irwin tweeted. "'Vengeance' does not imply peaceful protest. Organizing or support for peaceful protests is ok."

According to Irwin, Twitter decided to restrict the graphic from being shared but with “no impact to users for having tweeted it” unless it was “reposted after removal or was posted with additional calls for violence/ wishes of harm.”

Greene’s office shared a copy of the deleted post and Twitter’s communication with her but did not respond to a request for additional comment. Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday evening.

Irwin said "a high number of users" reported the graphic Monday, most likely "due to heightened sensitivity to the language, given the tragic events in Nashville," where six people, including three children, were gunned down at a Christian elementary school.

Nashville police said the shooter was Audrey Hale, whom they identified as a transgender former student of The Covenant School. Hale, 28, was killed by police.

In the wake of the shooting, some GOP lawmakers have focused on the suspect’s gender identity amid an intensifying battle waged by some conservatives against transgender people.

Greene has been a vocal critic of transgender rights on Capitol Hill. During her first year in Congress, she placed a sign outside her office mocking a Democratic lawmaker whose daughter is transgender after the Democrat hung a transgender pride flag next to her door. The same year, Greene co-sponsored legislation to ban U.S. embassies from flying the LGBTQ pride flag. Last year, she supported a proposal to ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors; she said this month she planned to reintroduce the measure.

Greene’s Twitter restriction is not the first time she has run afoul of the site's policies. Last year, her personal account was suspended for repeatedly violating Twitter's Covid misinformation policy. Twitter also flagged a tweet on her congressional account that mocked a transgender Biden administration official, saying the post violated the company’s rules for hateful conduct.

Greene was also repeatedly suspended in 2021 for false claims about election fraud in Georgia and for her tweets about vaccines.