Dear People For Supporter, On Monday, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) reached a new low – from her official Congressional Twitter account – when she tweeted out the ludicrous assertion that three of her fellow Republicans are “pro-pedophile” for saying they’ll vote to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. Greene’s personal Twitter account, you may recall, was already suspended in January for repeated violations of the company’s policies regarding COVID-19 misinformation. The attack on Senators Murkowski, Collins and Romney is just the latest in wild, QAnon-inspired hate from the Far Right, and previews the disgusting smear tactics that they’ll try to use in this fall’s elections to take control of Congress. Unfortunately, it also carries real potential to spur violent extremists into action, both against the tweet’s targets – as well as anyone else who shares their position that Judge Jackson should be confirmed. It’s been obvious for quite some time that social media companies have a problem with violent extremists organizing on their platforms. And online misinformation often leads to real-world violence, such as the gunman who opened fire in a Washington D.C. pizzeria in 2017 based on information from far-right websites that the restaurant was the headquarters of a child trafficking operation. Twitter, as a private company, regularly monitors their users’ postings and removes content that it finds to be hateful or intended to incite violence – as it should. Serial abusers like Greene, however, need to be held accountable with more decisive action, similar to how Donald Trump was removed from Twitter for his repeated lies about the 2020 election and their link to extremist, insurrectionist violence. Rep. Greene’s baseless accusations from her Congressional account – coming on top of her previous suspension from her personal account, and a clear pattern of far-right extremists spurred to violence by online misinformation – cannot be allowed to stand. Thank you for your activism on this issue and for everything you do to fight hate and defend democracy! – Will Easton, People For's Digital Team
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