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  • 2022-03-23 (xsd:date)
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  • Was Reka Gyorgy Banned by Twitter for Criticizing Lia Thomas? (en)
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  • In March 2022, false rumors were circulated on social media that Reka Gyorgy, a collegiate swimmer from Virginia Tech, had been suspended from Twitter after she posted criticism of Lia Thomas, a University of Pennsylvania swimmer who became the first transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I national championship when she finished the 500-yard freestyle in four minutes, 33.24 seconds. While the above-displayed account displaying the handle @RekaGyorgy_ was truly suspended from Twitter, this account did not belong to the Virginia Tech swimmer. This was an imposter account that was posing as Gyorgy. This fake account posted a message calling on women athletes to boycott sports until transgender athletes are banned. The message -- which, again, did not come from Gyorgy -- read: My finals spot was stolen by Lia Thomas, who is a biological male. Until we all refuse to compete nothing will change. Thanks for all the support retweets and follows I wont stop fighting. When this account was banned for violating Twitter's rules against impersonating real people, social media users falsely claimed that Gyorgy was being censored by big tech. But Gyorgy was not censored by Twitter, because this account didn't belong to Gyorgy. She confirmed to Reuters that the account didn't belong to her and added: I don’t have Twitter! While Gyorgy did not post these messages and was not banned from Twitter, the swimmer has released a statement regarding Thomas and the NCAA rules. In her statement, Gyorgy said that she respects and fully stands with Thomas, and that Thomas, like all of her fellow swimmers, worked hard and sacrificed in order to compete at such a high level. The swimmer did, however, criticize the NCAA's rules that allow [Thomas] to compete against us, who are biological women. Here's her statement in full: The Philadelphia Inquirer notes that while Thomas became the first transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I national championship, her performance wasn't record-breaking. In fact, her winning 500-yard freestyle performance was nine seconds slower than Katie Ledecky's performance in 2017. This wasn't the only misleading or false claim to circulate in the wake of Thomas' victory. A photograph showing Thomas standing alone while three other swimmers posed for a picture was widely shared on social media as if it showed some sort of political statement. Erica Sullivan, one of the swimmers in the picture, attempted to correct the record by stating that she was simply taking a picture with two of her friends (all of whom competed together at the Olympics) and that she fully supported Thomas. Sullivan wrote on Instagram: (en)
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