Matt Rourke/AP
- Alex Berenson has been permanently suspended from Twitter after trying to discredit the COVID vaccine.
- Berenson has spread anti-masking and anti-vaccine disinformation throughout the pandemic.
- Berenson called his suspension from Twitter "censorship" as he defended himself and relocated to Substack.
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
Twitter permanently suspended former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson for violating the platform's COVID-19 misinformation guidelines. In his final tweet, Berenson discredited the efficacy of the COVID vaccine.
"It doesn't stop infection. Or transmission. Don't think of it as a vaccine. Think of it – at best – as a therapeutic with a limited window of efficacy and terrible side effect profile that must be dosed IN ADVANCE OF ILLNESS. And we want to mandate it? Insanity," Berenson tweeted.
A Twitter spokesperson told NBC News that Berenson's account was "permanently suspended for repeated violations of our COVID-19 misinformation rules."
Berenson gained popularity among conservatives as a source for his skepticism of masks, social distancing, and vaccines.
Berenson posted about his suspension on Substack. He did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
"This was the tweet that did it. Entirely accurate," Berenson wrote, referencing his final tweet. "I can't wait to hear what a jury will make of this."
Berenson told the New York Post that Twitter's actions qualified as censorship.
"We have reached a dangerous moment. Social media companies that have audiences which dwarf any other are now actively censoring reporters at the behest of governments," Berenson told the Post. "I will continue to fight to get out the truth and am considering all legal options."
Soon after the suspension, the Daily Beast said Berenson tweeted from a different account named @GenRescue.
"Censorship is dumb," a tweet from the account read.
While the account currently has no identifying information at time of publication, the Daily Beast reported the account previously had "definitely not Alex Berenson" as its bio, which included a link to Berenson's Substack.