Twitter on Tuesday restored the account of a British doctor known for questioning the efficacy and safety of COVID-19 vaccines after telling her the account had been “permanently suspended due to multiple or repeat” rule violations.
Dr. Clare Craig, a diagnostic pathologist who has more than 145,000 followers on Twitter, had her account suspended on Sunday without getting an explanation. After she appealed the suspension, Twitter told her on Tuesday that the account had been permanently suspended, hours before restoring it, blaming the incident on a system that “find[s] and remove[s] multiple automated spam accounts in bulk.”
Speaking to The Epoch Times on Tuesday afternoon, Craig said she realised on Monday that her account had been suspended, but believes it happened on Sunday.
She said she didn’t know the reason for her account’s suspension, but someone may have reported her over fabricated “hateful conduct.”
“I don’t know. I’ve never been suspended before, and people who have been [suspended] have told me they normally get an email from Twitter explaining why, and I never got an email,” she said.
She then said there may be evidence that she was reported to the social media platform for “hateful conduct” by online trolls.
“One of my friends found somebody gloating that they had got me kicked off, saying, ‘oops, my finger slipped,’ and then sharing this screengrab which said to them: you can’t view @ClareCraigPath’s Twitter because she has been removed for hateful conduct,” she said.
Craig said she doesn’t know what processes Twitter uses to deal with such reports, but denied having been hateful.
“I haven’t said anything rude to anybody or about anybody, let alone hateful. So I think it’s potentially this troll has fabricated something, and I’ve been removed without due process because it was hateful,” she said, adding that she had appealed to Twitter about the suspension of her account.
Craig later received an email from Twitter, saying her account had been “permanently suspended due to multiple or repeat violations of our rules.”
Twitter added that replies to the email “will not be reviewed as this decision will not be reversed.”
Craig told The Epoch Times at the time that she still didn’t know what she had been accused of after reading Twitter’s reply.
She said she has an old work account that she hasn’t used since 2013 and another one she applied for so she could download the app onto a U.S. mobile phone, and she has never posted anything with the account.
On Twitter’s website, users have the option to “add an existing account” or “manage accounts,” suggesting it does allow multiple accounts.
Twitter didn’t respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment at the time.
Around six hours later, Craig’s account was reinstated.
Educated at the universities of Cambridge and Oxford, Craig was formerly a consultant cytopathologist for the National Health Service. She has been a vocal critic of the UK’s COVID-19 pandemic policies, such as mandatory vaccination for health workers, a policy that was ditched at the eleventh hour before it was due to come into force.
She contributes to the Health Advisory and Recovery Team, a group of experts who are skeptical about the policy and guidance relating to the COVID-19 pandemic.
