Former Florida Department of Health data analyst Rebekah Jones, a critic of Gov. Ron DeSantis, was suspended by Twitter for “platform manipulation and spam,” according to her account information.
Jones was fired in 2020 from her role as dashboard manager for Florida’s Health Department after she questioned the state’s COVID-19 response. She claimed she was told to alter data on the dashboard to protect the reputation of DeSantis’s administration, although the department said she was fired for repeated violations of an agency policy barring communication with the media.
Jones sent a screenshot to an outlet notifying it that Twitter had received an appeal from her about the state of her suspended account, saying, “It was clearly an auto-lock feature against spamming. Should be back up soon.”
But “there was clearly a concentrated surge in new follower activity” for Jones’s account, according to fraud researcher Dr. Augustine Fou.
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The information that is unclear is whether Jones purchased Twitter followers for herself or whether a false flag campaign did it for her, making it appear as though she broke the platform’s rules, Fou said.
DeSantis’s press secretary Christina Pushaw called the social media site’s decision to suspend Jones’s account “long overdue.”
Some criticized the cheers by a member of his office, noting the governor recently passed legislation aimed at making it harder for platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to deplatform users.
A statement from the Republican governor’s office called Jones a “super-spreader of COVID-19 disinformation.”
Pushaw defended critics who called out her support for the social media ban, saying, “I can be against Big Tech censorship but still personally relieved that an unstable grifter who dedicated the past 3 months to harassing me via her Twitter mob, frivolous police reports & lawfare is no longer able to do that.”
Jones was reportedly considering a run for Congress in 2022 but recently said she did not feel safe running in Florida, where she is slated to face a felony hacking trial.
Jones’s Twitter account is still suspended.
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The Washington Examiner contacted Twitter for more information about the suspension, and a contact for Jones was not immediately available.
