Anti-COVID crusader Dr. Mary Talley Bowden has been kicked off TikTok, again.

When asked by The Dallas Express what she thinks this means for pandemic dissenters’ speech still being censored after the end of the pandemic, she responded, “We are up against forces stronger than Goliath.”

This was not her first ban from the platform, she explained. The Houston ear, nose and throat doctor was on TikTok during the pandemic, posting videos critical of COVID-era policy. This earned her her first ban.

On the heels of the recent loosening of speech restrictions on platforms like X, she decided to have another go at TikTok.

However, she did not last long. “I’ve posted 9 videos on @tiktok_us in the past 2 weeks… 1/3 of them violated “community guidelines,” the doctor tweeted.

On the 10th video, the individualized violations of community guidelines became a total ban. “Your loss @TikTok,” she tweeted.

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Attached was a screenshot of her TikTok account saying, “Your account was permanently banned.” No specific reason was immediately or visibly cited.

Bowden explained to DX that her TikTok videos are not unique to the platform. They are just clippings of her interviews that she shares on her various social media accounts.

Censorship of dissenters on COVID policy reached its Zenith in 2020-2022. However, there are lingering concerns about whether social media algorithms still disfavor people who talk about the subject.

Ivermectin is an anti-parasitic drug that many doctors, including Bowden, found to be highly effective in the treatment of COVID-19. Nevertheless, during the pandemic, the major social media platforms would persistently strike down discussions on the subject.

Recent revelations from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and discovery in the federal lawsuit Murthy v Biden reveal that at least some of the censorship was done at the behest of the White House, The Dallas Express previously reported.

When the private investigative organization Project Veritas published damning undercover video of a top DOJ lawyer admitting the FDA was wrong for condemning Ivermectin on social media, Veritas still spelled Ivermectin as “Ivermect*n,” DX previously reported.

This was a common tactic from the pandemic era to throw off censors. Words like Ivermectin would be spelled with asterisks or exclamation points replacing letters, while words like “jabbed” would be spelled as “jibberjabbed” or “vaccinated” as “Vaxxxxxxed.” Its usage in this context indicated Veritas was suspicious new content could still be censored.

Bowden had experienced censorship on Twitter during the pandemic and even after the platform became X, its’ AI bot Grok was previously exposed by DX for erasing a speech of the doctors’ and later rewriting it to espouse militantly anti-free speech views.

Bowden’s Biblical allusion puts her and others in the role of David, a fitting position given her stunning success defeating far more powerful forces in recent months. Before the Veritas video, Bowden had sued the FDA over its tweets and other actions and won.

This victory came in the form of a settlement. After months of legal wrangling and with observers becoming increasingly certain that Bowden and her co-plaintiffs would be able to prove the FDA had interfered in their practice of medicine by implying that Ivermectin was either illegal or unsafe for human consumption, the agency agreed to scrap its statements about the drug.

Then-presidential contender Robert F Kennedy Jr had spoken to DX about this lawsuit after the settlement and he condemned a “culture of corruption” in the federal health agencies.

Shortly thereafter, Bowden also defeated a complaint to the Texas Medical Board from a pharmacist about her prescribing Ivermectin for the treatment of COVID-19.

However, Bowden’s struggles are not yet over. She will soon have to take on the Texas Medical Board over another pandemic-era case where she treated an ailing Tarrant County Sheriff’s Deputy with Ivermectin at the pleading of his now-widow.

There are many elements to the case, however, the most consequential is whether Bowden had the right to attempt to treat the deputy while he was in the care of Texas Huguley Hospital in Fort Worth.

Bowden had found Ivermectin to be effective when used early in the several thousand COVID cases she treated.

Jones had suffered a variety of serious medical ailments after coming down with the virus. His health declined and Huguley obstructed Bowden’s several attempts to treat the patient, causing a permanent delay in his interactions with Bowden. He never fully recovered and died a few months after leaving the hospital.

This case has continued despite numerous calls from elected officials for it to be brought to an end and an investigation from The Dallas Express that revealed members of the medical board had been watching Bowden’s activism for years before a case was brought against her, with some appearing to harbor negative sentiments about her.

No matter the outcome of the Huguley case, Bowden may not have to wait long to see the Goliath of TikTok fall. However, unlike the FDA, the behemoth’s defeat likely will not come from Bowden’s sling.

TikTok is currently in a life-and-death federal court battle to stop a national ban on the Chinese-based social media platform that many have said could be used as a tool for foreign espionage. If the company is not successful, the ban will take effect Jan 19, 2025, unless a sale to a non-Chinese purchaser is underway, NPR reported.

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