As Parler returns, Twitter is still allowing mainstream Republicans to spread misinformation

Influential accounts posting baseless voter fraud claims have largely been spared suspension in Twitter’s latest purge.

Pro-Trump protesters gather in front of the US Capitol building on 6 January 2021. (Photo By Brent Stirton/Getty Images)

In the wake of the assault on the US Capitol in January, Twitter took decisive action against false claims of election fraud by suspending 70,000 accounts associated with the QAnon conspiracy.

However, new data shows that almost all of the most prolific spreaders of electoral fraud misinformation were within the orbit of the Republican mainstream, and were largely left to their own devices by a Twitter purge that appeared to focus on fringe conspiracists.