Twitter Bans Former NYTimes Journalist For COVID Misinformation

Twitter has permanently suspended former New York Times journalist and author Alex Berenson, a critic of coronavirus lockdowns and mandates, from its platform, reports Fox Business.

"The account you referenced has been permanently suspended for repeated violations of our COVID-19 misinformation rules," a Twitter spokesperson told Fox News in response to an inquiry Saturday night.

On his Substack page, Berenson subsequently posted a brief message, just over 152 characters, titled, "Goodbye Twitter."

In that tweet, he wrote that the coronavirus vaccine does not stop infection or transmission.

The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention say that COVID-19 vaccines "are safe and effective" following tens of thousands of clinical trials and that side effects are rare.

Alex Berenson

Berenson, 48, made national headlines last year for his criticism coronavirus lockdowns and mandates, drawing the ire of Big Tech, the mainstream media and others who sought to bury his writing. 

In a December op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, Berenson warned that the COVID-19 pandemic had ushered in "a new age of censorship and suppression."

"Information has never been more plentiful or easier to distribute. Yet we are sliding into a new age of censorship and suppression, encouraged by technology giants and traditional media companies. As someone who’s been falsely characterized as a coronavirus ‘denier,’" he wrote at the time. "I have seen this crisis firsthand."

Berenson worked at the New York Times from 1999 until 2010, before becoming a full-time novelist. He also published nonfiction, including a controversial 2019 book that argued against the legalization of marijuana.