LOS ANGELES (NewsNation Now) — Rapper Nicki Minaj said Wednesday that she is in “Twitter jail,” days after sending conflicting tweets about COVID-19 to her more than 22 million followers.
“They didn’t like what I was saying over there on that block, I guess,” the singer wrote in an Instagram story.
Earlier this week, some of Minaj’s tweets explaining why she did not attended the Met Gala went viral.
Shortly after she tweeted an unsubstantiated story regarding her cousin’s friend being rendered impotent after being vaccinated.
A few minutes later, Minaj posted a tweet saying that she will get vaccinated to be able to tour.
Trinidad and Tobago Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh on Wednesday criticized Minaj’s claim.
“One of the reasons why we could not respond yesterday in real-time to Miss Minaj is that we had to check and make sure that what she was claiming was either true or false. Unfortunately, we wasted so much time yesterday running down this false claim,” Deyalsingh said.
On Wednesday, the White House offered to connect Nicki Minaj with one of the Biden administration’s doctors to address her questions about the COVID-19 vaccine.
The White House said that they’ve offered such calls with others concerned about the vaccine, part of an aggressive public relations campaign to beat back rampant disinformation about the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness.
When asked about Minaj’s tweets, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert, said there was a lot of misinformation on social media.
“I’m not blaming her for anything – but she should be thinking twice about propagating information that really has no basis as except a one-off anecdote, and that’s not what science is all about.”
As of Wednesday evening, Minaj’s account was still visible.
In March, Twitter launched a “strike” system. It uses a combination of artificial intelligence and machine learning to identify content about the coronavirus that is misleading enough to cause harm to people.
Two or three strikes earn a 12-hour account lock; four strikes prompt a week-long suspension, and five or more strikes can get someone permanently removed from Twitter.