A simple settings change by Greene’s campaign committee, which manages the page, could stop this trolling. Instead, Greene’s blue check-verified Facebook page, with its 476,000 followers, has become a veritable bulletin board of ridicule directed at the bombastic congresswoman.
Clown and baboon imagery are popular, as are Russian flags and a meme of the congresswoman shouting during President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech. Sexually explicit drawings are also posted on Greene’s page for all to see, including a fake photo with the congresswoman’s head on a nearly nude body.
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“Best practices would be that the campaign would want to block this type of behavior,” said Maggie Macdonald, assistant professor of political science at the University of Kentucky. “My take on her broader strategy — and I would put other politicians like Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert in this bucket on the more conservative side — that their goal is to get national media attention, to be talked about, to be on the news, to be interviewed, and so this is a strategy, one of many strategies to further those goals.”
Nick Dyer, Greene's deputy chief of staff, replied to a Raw Story inquiry by saying, "What are you talking about?" After being given links to Greene's tagged Facebook photos and a Business Insider story from a year ago, he declined to answer questions about Greene's social media practices while saying that Raw Story needed to ask Facebook why it allows those images on its platform.
Facebook and its parent company, Meta, did not immediately respond to Raw Story's request for comment. (Update, 3:30 p.m. Nov. 29: Several of the images were removed after Raw Story's inquiry.)
Facebook's community standards list hate speech and adult nudity and sexual activity among its "objectionable content." Facebook's community standards additionally state that the company distinguishes between public figures and private individuals in terms of bullying and harassment "because we want to allow discussion, which often includes critical commentary of people who are featured in the news or who have a large public audience."
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"For public figures, we remove attacks that are severe as well as certain attacks where the public figure is directly tagged in the post or comment," the policy continues. As of publication time, the tagged photos remained on Greene's Facebook page.
Multiple photos among Greene's tagged photos on Facebook made fun of her antics during the State of the Union speech earlier this year. Greene, dressed in a white coat with a thick fur collar, cupped both hands around her mouth and yelled “Liar” during the speech.
One post juxtaposed a photo of Greene from the speech with a screaming baboon, white fur jutting out from the sides of its head.
“Who wore it better?” the post says.
Screen grab from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's Facebook
Another was a screen grab of a social media post with the picture of Greene and the words, “If you’ve ever seen monkeys in the zoo, you’ll recognize the face they make before they start flinging [dung].”
In a nod to pop culture, someone posted a photo of “The New MTG BARBIE” — a screaming doll with long eyelashes and furrowed eyebrows drawn on the image.
One person added a clown nose, MAGA hat and “Trump-Putin 2024” logo to Greene’s image on her social media post calling Fulton County, Ga., District Attorney Fani Willis — who’s prosecuting former President Donald Trump for election interference — a “commie” and “nothing more than a political hitman tasked with taking out Biden’s top political opponent.”
"I don't want to take it lightly that people are being hateful to her. It's not good," Macdonald said. "My assumption is that for her campaign, they've decided the cost-benefit is worth it."
Screen grab Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's Facebook
Other images added the Russian flag to Greene’s clothes or forehead in photos with people such as Sean Hannity of Fox News. Still, more accuse Greene of being a “domestic terrorist” and adulterer.
“In hindsight, crossing horse, demon and Nazi DNA was probably a bad idea,” reads a caption on one photo of Greene.
Elsewhere on Greene’s Facebook page, it’s business as usual, with Greene posting this week about an interview with Tucker Carlson and promoting her book “MTG.”
Members of Congress most often use Facebook to connect with their constituents — often supporters — rather than to gain new voters, said Macdonald, who was formerly a postdoctoral fellow at New York University’s Center for Social Media and Politics. Facebook briefly suspended Greene's Facebook account in 2022 after the social media platform accused her of spreading COVID-19 misinformation.
“The goal is probably not to bring any new people onto your side, but it's to keep the people who are already there and get them riled up and trigger their group mindset of ‘Yes, I'm with you. I'm against these other people who are attacking you,’” Macdonald said.
Greene was first elected to Congress in 2020 and was re-elected in 2022, winning by large margins both times. She is running again next year but has talked about serving in Trump’s cabinet if he wins the presidency. She has also talked about the possibility of being Trump’s vice president.
“In terms of why Rep. Greene and her communication staffers haven't changed the settings, my assumption is that they don't see it as a problem for her. If they did, they would change their behavior,” Macdonald said. “This is just a way to get attention and show to her supporters ‘I'm being attacked. I represent you,’ and just a way to kind of further her goals, which are unique to her as a politician.”
