The Best Friends The Virus Has Are Republicans

 

The following post is by Ja'han Jones at MSNBC.com:

The Republican Party is a pro-infection party. From their support of lax Covid-19 safety measures to their tantrums over social media crackdowns on misinformation, Republicans have shown they believe the unfettered passage of dangerous material — be it viral content or a literal virus — is their right.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy made that clear once again Monday with his statement supporting Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., after Twitter banned her personal account for violating its Covid misinformation policy.

“Diversity of opinion is the lifeblood of our democracy,” claimed McCarthy, R-Calif. “And yet that fundamental American value is under assault by Big Tech — entities that have amassed more power and more control over more speech than any other institution in history.”

In typical fashion, McCarthy was merely shilling for an extremist in his party who was rightly punished for misconduct. Greene, of course, wasn’t banned for sharing “diverse” opinions — she was banned for sharing harmful misinformation. Specifically, she falsely tweeted about “extremely high amounts of Covid vaccine deaths” and shared a misleading chart designed to make the vaccine seem dangerous.

Twitter told the true story in a statement to NBC News:

We permanently suspended the account you referenced (@mtgreenee) for repeated violations of our COVID-19 misinformation policy. We’ve been clear that, per our strike system for this policy, we will permanently suspend accounts for repeated violations of the policy.

A day later, Facebook also banned Greene — this time, temporarily — for peddling Covid misinformation. The suspensions clearly weren’t about free speech, contrary to McCarthy’s claim. Greene wasn’t sharing her food recipes (which I'd assume are unpalatable in their own way). She was sharing dangerous misinformation despite repeated warnings.

But Republicans reject these efforts to curb misinformation in the same way they reject efforts to curb the spread of coronavirus: with a fundamental belief that their personal freedoms should trump public safety.