Randy Hillier has once again found himself in hot water after posting misinformation on Twitter. After falsely citing a report released by the FDA, Twitter suspended HIllier’s account for a period of seven days.
Hillier has claimed that a report released by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reveals that there were 1,200 deaths due to the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine over a 90 day period. However, fact checkers report that this data is misleading. Agence France Presse says that the “deaths were among millions of vaccinated people and the causes of each death were not verified, meaning the data may include deaths attributable to others.”
According to Twitter, the misleading claim goes against the platform’s misinformation policy. “Content that is demonstrably false or misleading and may lead to significant risk of harm (such as increased exposure to the virus, or adverse effects on public health systems) may not be shared on Twitter,” the company’s policy states.
While Hillier claims that he has been suspended for 7 days, a Twitter spokesperson has now told Toronto Star that his account has been permanently suspended after violating its COVID-19 misleading information policy.
Whether or not he has been permanently banned, Hillier says that he will still use “instagram, telegram and facebook” to communicate with constituents.