In May 2020, Jones was terminated from her position managing the team that created Florida's ArcGIS COVID-19 dashboard after being repeatedly reprimanded for sharing the department's work online without authorization.

Jones later posted on social media a forgery of the dismissal letter from the Florida Commission on Human Relations, such that it appeared that her complaint had been validated.

Jones has used her Twitter account to make unsupported statements on a variety of topics, including COVID-19 and DeSantis, one of which NBC News called a conspiracy theory.

[1] In her junior year, Jones was removed from class for refusing to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and led other students to do the same after learning from civil liberties groups she was acting within her rights.

[20] Jones was a graduate student in the Department of Geography at Florida State University from 2016 through 2018,[24] where she worked on a doctoral dissertation[25][26][24] until she was dismissed from the PhD program in 2019 due to misconduct in her teaching position.

Jones performed analysis and modeling of mapping and surveillance data to provide information to the public and state officials used to coordinate disaster response, like the organization of patient movement to open beds between interstate hospitals.

[34][35] The following month, Carina Blackmore, an epidemiologist and the director for the division, assembled a small team including Jones "to develop new data for a reopening plan.

[36] Jones opposed the use of federal guidelines to make low-population areas more resilient to small, containable spikes in cases and disagreed with the epidemiologists on her team about methodology by which the state evaluated readiness to reopen.

[36][43][38] Shamarial Roberson, Deputy Secretary of Health, said the field was a self-reported date indicating when patients believed their symptoms began or may have come into contact with the virus.

[36][49] She sent an email to a public listserv suggesting her removal from the dashboard team should cast doubt on the data's integrity, inferring it was punishment for her commitment to accessibility and transparency.

[38][5] The Associated Press reported that state records detailed repeated warnings by her supervisor not to publicly discuss her work without permission, including releasing unauthorized charts.

[38] The spokesperson for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said Jones was dismissed for making unilateral decisions about the dashboard without consulting others on the team, to which her superiors testified.

"[56][36] Jones alleged on Twitter that she was ordered to delete positive test results and deaths, and that the state was hiding such data to make the pandemic seem less deadly, which NBC News called a conspiracy theory.

[53][59] In May 2022, the Florida Office of Inspector General published their findings that her claims were unsubstantiated and lacked sufficient evidence, and exonerated officials she accused of wrongdoing.

"[66][67] On October 26, 2022, Jones posted an altered image of a letter from the Florida Commission on Human Relations on her Instagram account, which she said proved that her whistleblower claims were validated.

[75][76][77] In March 2023, Jones filed a lawsuit against the Florida Department of Health, the state Surgeon General and a former deputy secretary seeking reinstatement, back wages, compensation for emotional distress and punitive damages for being fired in May 2020.

[101][102] FDLE said in a statement she was suspected of accessing the system to send an unauthorized message, "speak up before another 17,000 people are dead," to members of the State Emergency Response Team on November 10, 2020, which originated from her home's IP address.

[107][108] U.S. civil liberties watchdog Electronic Frontier Foundation warned about over-reliance on IP addresses and called for the need to reform overbroad computer crime laws.

[109] Ars Technica reported that the affidavit had stated that the emergency alert system at the time the unauthorized message was sent used a single username and password.

[112][113] On December 8, 2022, she entered into a deferred prosecution agreement to avoid trial, where among other requirements, she would have to admit guilt, pay a $20,000 fine to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, do community service, and see a mental health professional monthly.

[116] Jones filed a lawsuit on December 20, 2020,[117] against the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and Commissioner Rick Swearingen[118] alleging that the police obtained a "sham" search warrant whose true purpose was to retaliate against her.

[119] She also alleged that the FDLE violated her First Amendment free speech rights, and had performed an unlawful search and seizure when they confiscated computers and her personal cell phone.

[117] Attorneys for Jones sought damages and a jury trial, stating in the 19-page lawsuit, which was filed in Leon County court, that "They entered her home with guns drawn, terrorizing her family.

"[118] On February 6, 2021, court records show Jones dropped the lawsuit against the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, although the disposition of her seized property remained unresolved.

[122][28] Other dropped charges related to the case include felony robbery, trespass, criminal mischief, and contempt of court stemming from an alleged violation of a domestic violence restraining order.

[27] In August 2020, Jones used Twitter to attack Jon Taylor, a PhD candidate at Florida Atlantic University who had created a COVID-19 tracker with his advisor, Rebel A. Cole, to correct for a potentially misleading statistic and present the data in a way more easily understood by the public.

[129][130] DeSantis's office commented upon the suspension, with a spokesperson calling it "long overdue" and accusing Jones of spreading "defamatory conspiracy theories".

[135] The judge withheld adjudication of his case, placing him on "an indefinite period of probation not to exceed his 19th birthday," while he complied with sentencing requirements, including 50 hours of community service.

[138][139][140][141] Fox News reported on a video made by progressive journalist Ana Kasparian in which she apologized for what she said was a bias against DeSantis and failing to do her due diligence on Jones and her claims.