SUMMARY: U.S. Congressional hearing on the #TwitterFiles and The Hunter Biden Laptop story.
All you need to know (a thread)
All you need to know (a thread)
Just over two hours ago, three former Twitter executives started their testimony at the House Oversight Committee over Twitter’s decision to temporarily suppress a New York Post story regarding Hunter Biden’s laptop.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer has launched a broad investigation into the Biden family’s business dealings.
The hearing marks the second-straight election where social media companies and the FBI have faced scrutiny for decisions made in the final weeks of a presidential election.
This time House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer is probing the social media giant in the wake of CEO Elon Musk releasing internal communications from Twitter staff about the decision to temporarily block users from sharing the New York Post story….
….. in the closing weeks of the 2020 presidential election campaign season.
Congress Representative Jamie Raskin: “This [the Hunter Biden laptop story] is not a bi-partisan issue and it represents a grave danger to democracy.”
The hearing is the first time that Twitter’s former Deputy Counsel James Baker, also a former top official at the FBI, will speak publicly since Musk fired him in December.
Three former Twitter employees will testify in front of the Congress: Twitter’s former Chief Legal Officer, Vijaya Gadde head of legal, policy, and trust at Twitter and former Head of Trust and Safety Yoel Roth.
Democrats featured Anika Collier Navaroli, a former Twitter employee turned whistleblower.
Jim Baker, Former Twitter Deputy General Counsel: “I’ve acted in a way consistent with the First Amendment. As a private entity, The First Amendment protects Twitter and its content moderation decision.”
Baker: “The law allows governments to have complex, multi-faceted relationships with the private sector. When done properly, these interactions can be of interest to the company and the general interest of the public.”
Baker: “Possible way to legislate in this area may be to focus on the actions of federal government agencies with respect to their engagement with the private sector, such as limiting those interactions, and higher-level approvals prior to such engagements.”
Vijaya Gadde, Twitter's former Chief Legal Officer: “While at Twitter, the company never lost sight of its mission to promote free speech across the world. The health of the platform required making difficult decisions.”
“We developed policies to prevent Twitter from becoming a dumping ground for hacked materials.”
Yoel Roth Former Twitter Head Trust & Safety: “Unrestricted free speech paradoxically means less speech, not more.”
“My team and I exposed hundreds of thousands of accounts from Russia, Iran, China and beyond, intending to stoke culture war issues and further divide American society.”
Annika Collier Navaroli, Former Twitter U.S. Safety Policy Team: “I was not involved in the decision around the Hunter Biden laptop. I was involved in decisions before, during and after the January 06 attacks on the capitol.”
“If we do nothing, violence is going to happen again.”
“Coded incitements to violence such as stand back and stand-by, became common and we didn’t have policies addressing this.” This was not hyperbolic, someone was going to get shot.”
Congress Representative Jamie Raskin: Gaddie and Baker failed at their jobs. Instead of letting people judge for themselves, you rushed to find a reason why the American people should not see it [the laptop story].
Gadde: “We received legal demands for content moderation from the US government as well as governments all across the world to remove content.”
Yoel Roth: “Our judgment was clouded by the very real experiences of 2016 and the activities we saw playing out at that time.”
Yoel Roth: “Our judgment was clouded by the very real experiences of 2016 and the activities we saw playing out at that time.”
Yoel Roth: “We did not have contacts with the Biden team. We’ve explicitly separated the team that would interact with campaign managers.”
Yoel Roth implied that the two teams – content moderation, and campaign managers interactions were separated, yet he shows a surprising awareness about the content behind some of the tweets marked for review.
Democrats also featured Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez to push back on the Republican criticisms of Twitter.
She criticized Twitter for allowing misinformation against the LGBTQ community and people of color.
She criticized Twitter for allowing misinformation against the LGBTQ community and people of color.
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