MIAMI — Rebekah Jones, who formerly maintained Florida’s COVID-19 dashboard but was fired last year when she rebelled after the duty was taken away from her, was suspended Monday from Twitter for “platform manipulation and spam.”
The suspension comes after Jones repeatedly shared a recent Miami Herald article about law enforcement officers raiding her home, her observations during her time at the Florida Department of Health and more.
Twitter notified Jones that it received an appeal from her regarding the state of her account, according to a screenshot that Jones sent to the Herald.
“It was clearly an auto-lock feature against spamming. Should be back up soon,” Jones told the Herald.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office said the decision was “long overdue” and referred to her as the “Typhoid Mary” of disinformation of COVID-19.
Christina Pushaw, the governor’s press secretary, said Jones was not being censored, but that she was suspended for, among other things, buying Twitter followers.
Among other issues, Jones has complained that she was asked to remove data from the dashboard after members of the news media questioned her about the numbers. The numbers in question were eventually restored.
Her home was raided last December by agents from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, who confiscated her electronics, looking for evidence that she had illegally accessed a state messaging app. She was later charged with a third-degree felony,
The Health department’s office of the inspector general recently informed Jones’ attorneys that she qualifies for whistleblower status as prescribed by law and that the office found “reasonable cause” to open an investigation into actions and decisions made by DOH leaders.
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(Miami Herald data and investigative reporter Sarah Blaskey contributed to this report.)
