Marjorie Taylor Greene resurfaced a baseless Yoel Roth pedophilia conspiracy
Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene’s no stranger to delusional conspiracy theories, an attribute she displayed in full force once again on Wednesday. During her line of questioning, Greene spoke directly to Yoel Roth, Twitter’s Former Global Head of Trust & Safety, and resurfaced right-wing rumors amplified by Elon Musk connecting the official to pedophilia.
My goodness — Marjorie Taylor Greene smears Yoel Roth as a pedophile pic.twitter.com/8yyjS9k2nY
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 8, 2023
“Here’s something that disgusts me about you,” Greene said after questioning Twitter’s ability to adequately remove child exploitation material. “In your dissertation entitled ‘Gay Data’ you argued that minors should have access to Grindr, an adult male gay hookup act. Minors, really?”
Looks like Yoel is arguing in favor of children being able to access adult Internet services in his PhD thesis: pic.twitter.com/1NiBohjhMQ
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 10, 2022
That intentional misinterpretation of Roth’s work exploded in right-wing media circles late last year after Musk tweeted a snippet of the paper in a tweet saying “Looks like Yoel is arguing in favor of children being able to access adults.” In reality, Roth’s point was more nuanced, and encouraged apps like Grindr to focus on safety since young users are already using the sites despite their age restrictions.
The misinformation sent a wave of angry messages towards Roth last year so severe that he felt forced to flee his home.
