Republicans questioned former Twitter executives about the platform's handling of reporting on Hunter Biden, the president's son, fulfilling a party promise to investigate what they have long asserted is anti-conservative bias at social media companies.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., center, talks with House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, during a House Committee on Oversight and Accountability hearing titled "Protecting Speech from Government Interference and Social Media Bias, Part 1: Twitter's Role in Suppressing the Biden Laptop Story" on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023, in Washington.
Three former executives appeared before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee to testify for the first time about the company's decision in the weeks before the 2020 election to initially block from Twitter a New York Post article about the contents of a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden. Months later, Twitter's then-CEO, Jack Dorsey, called the company's communications around the Post article "not great." He added that blocking the article's URL with "zero context" around why it was blocked was "unacceptable."
The issue was also reignited recently after Elon Musk took over Twitter as CEO and began to release a slew of company information to independent journalists, what he has called the "Twitter Files." Nonetheless, Republicans including Comer, R-Ky., have used the Post story, which has not been independently verified by The Associated Press, as the basis for what they claim is another example of the Biden family's “influence peddling."
Baker vehemently denied that he acted as "an agent or an operator" for the U.S. government while working for the company. The hearing featured a number of contentious moments, including Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene interrupting California Rep. Jimmy Gomez's questioning of Roth as he was discussing why her account was suspended from the platform. Greene's account was permanently suspended in January of last year for violating the company's COVID-19 misinformation policy, but her account was reinstated in November under new Twitter owner Elon Musk.
Democrats' witness warns of Twitter's failure to act before Jan. 6, tells lawmakers Trump WH tried to remove Chrissy Teigen post "If we're here to talk social media and the government, we need to talk about Twitter's failure to act before Jan. 6," Navaroli said Wednesday. "I'm here to tell you that doing nothing is not an option. If we continue to do nothing, violence is going to happen again."
Democrats pressed Navaroli on the Trump administration's efforts to remove Twitter posts from the platform. She testified that the Trump White House asked the company to remove a profanity-laden 2019 Tweet from model Chrissy Teigen that was critical of former President Trump. The company ultimately chose not to remove the post, she said.
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