Twitter on Wednesday temporarily locked the account of popular Republican political commentators Diamond and Silk after the pair posted a statement that violated the site's rules against spreading misinformation on coronavirus, according to a report by Politico.
“The only way we can become immune to the environment; we must be out in the environment,” the tweet said. “Quarantining people inside of their house for extended periods will make people sick!” the statement said.
By Wednesday afternoon the tweet had been removed.
Politico correspondent Cristiano Lima was the first to report about the episode Wednesday.
"The Tweet is in violation of our COVID-19 misinformation policy. The account will be locked until the account owner removes the Tweet," a spokesperson for the platform said, according to Deadline.com.
The widely recognized pair, whose real names are Lynnette Hardaway and Rochelle Richardson, work as hosts on Fox Nation, a subscription social media streaming spinoff of Fox News Channel.
They have 1.4 million followers on Twitter.
The two are controversial in the black community due to where they stand on issues of race plus their regular appearances in right-wing news media.
They are also chummy with President Donald Trump, making appearances with him on the campaign trail and in the Oval Office, and retweeting many of his posts.
In 2018 the pair accused Facebook of censorship after they said their account was deemed to be “unsafe to the community.” The matter led to Congressional hearings, where no evidence of targeting was found.
Twitter announced their new misinformation policy on March 18 after the company expanded its guidance which define harmful posts. “We have broadened our definition of harm to address content that goes directly against guidance from authoritative sources of global and local public health information,” the platform announced, according to Politico.
Recently, the social networking giant has also taken action against the accounts of Fox News host Laura Ingraham and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani for the same violations, Politico reports.
