Twitter suspends Dr. Mary Talley Bowden's account over COVID-19 posts
In early 2022, Twitter suspended Dr. Mary Talley Bowden's account under its COVID-19 misinformation policy after posts about ivermectin and vaccine mandates. Her account was reinstated after Elon Musk acquired the platform in late 2022.
Bowden's Twitter account (@MdBreathe) was suspended in 2022 under Twitter's then-active COVID-19 misleading-information policy, which imposed strikes for statements contradicting public health authorities on vaccines and treatments. Bowden documented the suspension publicly and it was reported by outlets covering physician deplatforming. Her account was restored following Elon Musk's October 2022 acquisition of Twitter and the November 2022 general amnesty for suspended accounts; Twitter formally retired the COVID-19 misleading-information policy on Nov. 23, 2022. Internal 'Twitter Files' reporting by journalist David Zweig in December 2022 documented that physicians including Bowden had been placed on internal 'Trends Blacklists' and 'Search Blacklists.'