GOP leader Kevin McCarthy criticizes Twitter for trying to 'silence Americans' after Marjorie Taylor Greene was banned for life for 'COVID misinformation'

• The Georgia GOP rep's account - @mtgreenee - was axed Sunday 
• Greene said she was suspended for sharing a tweet citing numbers from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System 
•  A Twitter spokesperson said: 'We permanently suspended @mtrgreene for repeated violations of our COVID-19 misinformation policy'
• This is the fifth strike for Greene, who was last suspended in August

House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy on Monday slammed Twitter for trying to 'silence' diversity after the platform banned Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Ga., for what it described as 'Covid misinformation.' 

'Diversity of opinion is the lifeblood of our democracy. 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,' McCarthy, R-Calif., said in a statement. 

'Their recent decisions to silence Americans — including a sitting member of Congress and renowned physicians — who share views different from the political and media elite have real world costs.'  

'In fact, as we get more information on the virus it is clear many of the views once demonized by technology companies and the political elite are turning out to be true. The doctrines of lockdowns, school closures, and the threat of covid-19 illness according to age groups and previous infection are currently being reversed,' said McCarthy. 

'Americans on the political left, including popular cable news hosts, members of Congress, and even the Vice President have themselves made public comments that are now universally understood to be false. Yet, they face no repercussions from the gatekeepers of America's town square.' 

The Georgia GOP rep's account - @mtgreenee - was axed Sunday. 

Her final tweets show her railing at what she blasted as government overreach about COVID and discussing how life had changed since the virus hit US shores. 

While Greene's personal account has been banned her congressional account remains active. 

This is the fifth strike for Greene, who was last suspended in August for saying that vaccines were 'failing' to reduce the spread of COVID and that the FDA shouldn't have approved them.

She got her third strike in July after tweeting that COVID wasn't dangerous. She was also suspended in January, days after the Capitol riot, for tweets echoing conspiracy theories about voter fraud in her home state of Georgia.

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.

A Twitter spokesperson said: 'We permanently suspended @mtrgreene 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.'

In a statement released by her office, Greene said she was suspended for sharing a tweet citing numbers from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, a self-reporting tool for vaccine side effects managed by the Centers for Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration.

Even Texas Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw has traded barbs with Greene over her controversial takes. On Monday, Crenshaw in a series of Instagram stories accused Greene of 'playing the victim' of censorship instead of voting for his bill to rein it in.

'That Marjorie scoffed at the notion of supporting anti-censorship legislation is indicative of her true intent: to remain a victim,' Crenshaw said. 'She doesn't want solutions and she doesn't care if you get censored. She just wants to keep being a victim so she can ask you for campaign donations. It's a scam.' 

Greene hit back on conservative media platform Gettr: 'Dan Crenshaw, who spends more time attacking America First Republicans because he (not so secretly) hates Trump, is talking about a bill to 'hold Big Tech accountable!; but is the same type of toothless bill the Paul Ryan types try to sell to make it look like they're doing something,' she wrote. 

Greene's suspension comes almost a year after Donald Trump was permanently suspended days after the January 6 riot.

In a lengthy Twitter thread on Saturday, she posted a graph showing a reported 18,000 deaths from the COVID-19 vaccines, according to VAERS data.

'Before Covid, Reported deaths from vaccines were taken seriously and dangerous vaccines were stopped. After Covid, Extremely high amounts of covid vaccine deaths are ignored and government forced vaccine mandates increase,' she said.

VAERS allows anyone to report side effects after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine. Government health official have warned that the data is being misused and misinterpreted, given that anyone is able to submit a report.

Reports of side effects or deaths caused by the COVID-19 vaccine on VAERS do not prove that negative outcomes were related to the vaccine itself.

Last month, Greene, 47, compared COVID to cancer in a four tweet thread calling for Americans to take a more laid back attitude to the virus.

'Every single year more than 600,000 people in the US die from cancer. In 2021, an estimated 608,570 people will die of cancer in the United States. The country has never once shut down. Not a single school has closed.

'And every year, over 600,000 people, of all ages and all races, will continue to die from cancer.

'Since #COVID19 tracking has started, 780,000+ people have died in 22 mo in the US, but more than 1 million still died of cancer.

'More have died in 2021 from covid than 2020 in spite of Gov mandated widespread vaccines, mass public masking, & trillions spent.

'Covid predominately targets obese & older people,' Greene added, insisting that 'it's time to take a different approach based on the facts' and 'stop the politically driven mass hysteria.'  

Greene has also taken repeated aim at White House COVID tsar Dr Anthony Fauci, and even shared snaps of herself wearing a face mask emblazoned with the words 'Fire Fauci.'

When her account was suspended in August 2021, a Twitter spokesperson said: 'The account will be in read-only mode for a week due to repeated violations of the Twitter rules.' 

Other House Republicans went after Twitter for banning Greene.  

'Welcome to the Woketopia. Where information is controlled by the few,' Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., tweeted.

Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., said Republicans 'WILL be holding' tech companies 'accountable' if the party takes back the House majority in the fall.

In 2017, she called the internet-born conspiracy theory QAnon, whose believers follow the words of an alleged government insider nicknamed Q, a 'once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take this global cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles out,' according to the Tampa Bay Times.

In February 2021, she said in a speech on the House floor that she stopped believing in the conspiracy theory once she found 'misinformation, lies, things that were not true' in QAnon posts.

On Sunday, the first-term congresswoman pointed the finger at her colleagues, suggesting Twitter has a double standard.

'Maxine Waters can go to the streets and threaten violence on Twitter, Kamala and Ilhan can bail out Black Lives Matter terrorists on Twitter, CNN and the rest of the Democrat Propaganda Media can spread Russia collusion lies, and just yesterday the Chief spokesman for terrorist IRGC can tweet mourning Soleimani, but I get suspended for tweeting VAERS statistics,' she said.

Statistics from the self-reporting vaccine side effect database are often cited by conservative commentators like Tucker Carlson to downplay the effectiveness of vaccines.

Last week, Greene criticized the national College Republicans group for tweeting out a message wishing people a Happy Kwanzaa.

The secular festival of African American culture is celebrated each year from December 26 to January 1.

'Stop. It's a fake religion created by a psychopath,' Greene wrote back on Twitter. 'You aren't bringing in new voters, you are turning them away. People are tired of pandering and BS.'