TAMPA (WFLA) – Twitter has apparently suspended former Florida Department of Health data analyst Rebekah Jones’ account.
It’s not clear when exactly Jones was suspended, but her account @GeoRebekah on Monday showed “account suspended.” A brief message read, “Twitter suspends accounts that violate the Twitter Rules.”
It’s also not clear yet whether the suspension is temporary or a permanent ban.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, who Jones frequently criticized and publicly sparred with over the past year, applauded the suspension in a statement to POLITICO Florida.
“This decision was long overdue. Rebekah Jones is the Typhoid Mary of COVID-19 disinformation and has harmed many hardworking DOH employees with her defamatory conspiracy theories,” a statement from the governor’s office said, according to POLITICO’s Matt Dixon. “I hope someone will ask Ms. Jones why she thinks she got suspended – will she allege that Governor DeSantis is somehow behind Twitter’s decision? That would be deeply ironic if she tried to spin that falsehood into her conspiracy theory, given the governor’s stance on Big Tech.”
Jones, who designed and managed the Florida Department of Health’s coronavirus dashboard, was fired in May. After her ousting, she raised questions about Florida’s COVID-19 data.
The state gave her whistleblower status last month, several months after a police raid on her home.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement said in a statement that a search warrant was issued because Jones was suspected of hacking into a Florida Department of Health computer system and sending an unauthorized message to members of the State Emergency Response Team.
