Twitter has banned a reporter for the right-wing news outlet Newsmax for persistently violating the social media platform’s COVID-19 misinformation policy. On Nov. 9, Emerald Robinson was permanently suspended for promoting disproven conspiracy theories about the pandemic and vaccines.
Newsmax had removed her from on-air duties a few days prior while the corporation looked into a recent blog piece.
The post propagated accusations that COVID-19 vaccines included a chemical called “Luciferase,” which was evidence of a Satanic scheme that “might herald the end of the world,” which had already been fully disproved.
Robinson’s Twitter account was momentarily restricted on Nov. 3 after she shared a link to the piece. When her account was restored on Nov. 9, she appears to have posted about Luciferase once more, prompting Twitter to impose the permanent ban.
According to a company spokesperson, the ban was imposed in response to “repeated violations of our COVID-19 misinformation policy,” which prohibits “false or misleading information about the efficacy and/or safety of preventative measures, treatments, or other precautions to mitigate or treat the disease,” among other types of harmful content.
“The new COVID-19 antibody test is called SATiN,” Robinson said in a follow-up blog post on Nov. 9, doubling down on her illogical assertions of a Satanic conspiracy, adding, “I’m not getting anywhere near this dark stuff.”
Despite the fact that “satin” is a completely separate word with no shared meaning or etymological root with “Satan,” Robinson came to the following conclusion:
“You don’t have to be a Christian to understand: names matter. It’s not an accident that they’ve given this name to this test. It’s a warning.”
Robinson joined Newsmax as a White House Correspondent in February 2020, following a similar job at OANN (One America News Network), a previously lesser-known right-wing media platform that, like Newsmax, grew in popularity and notoriety under former President Donald Trump’s administration. Robinson grew up in rural Virginia, according to her own website.
Misinformation about Covid-19 and vaccines has been stifled on Twitter (TWTR). The social networking site allows users to flag tweets that contain incorrect information.
During previous election cycles, social media firms have come under fire for supporting the propagation of political misinformation, as well as the distribution of Covid-19 and anti-vaccine propaganda.
