The House committee is questioning Twitter executives on the company’s 2020 decision to block users from sharing a New York Post story on Hunter Biden. (Video: The Washington Post)
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A congressional hearing Wednesday represents a moment of political reckoning more than two years in the making — and a chance for the House’s new Republican majority to use its investigative powers to embarrass both President Biden and Big Tech, with an assist from their new ally Elon Musk.
The House Oversight Committee is grilling three former Twitter executives on the company’s 2020 decision to block users from sharing a controversial New York Post story about Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, and the scandalous contents of a laptop that allegedly belonged to him. That decision, which Twitter later reversed, has become the right’s go-to example of what it views as anti-conservative “censorship” by Silicon Valley social media firms — even though the company’s leaders have long since agreed it was a mistake.
Live contributors End of carouselRepublican lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee took umbrage at former Twitter deputy general counsel James Baker’s refusal to answer their questions after asserting attorney client privilege on Wednesday.
After Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) asked about internal communications at Twitter about staffers’ interactions with federal agencies, Baker said he could not answer because the information was “covered by the attorney-client privilege” with the social network.
Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) disputed the claim, telling Baker he was “overruled” because he was testifying under subpoena and that Congress does not recognize the privilege he asserted.
Return to menu Technology news analysis writerOne voice that has been conspicuously absent from today’s proceedings: that of Elon Musk.
The billionaire’s purchase of Twitter, criticism of its policies, ouster of its executives, and commissioning of the “Twitter files” led inexorably to the hearing, at which multiple Republicans said, “God bless Elon Musk." But Musk himself has been silent, aside from a cryptic Tuesday tweet:
Going forward, Twitter will be broadly accepting of different values, rather than trying to impose its own specific values on the world
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 7, 2023
For some Democratic lawmakers, the real unanswered question of this hearing is not why Twitter temporarily blocked the Hunter Biden laptop story. It’s the question of what their Republican counterparts stand to gain from dredging up a two-year-old content moderation decision made by a group of executives who have already acknowledged it was a mistake.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) offered her theory. Speaking to reporters during a recess, she accused Republicans of convening the hearing to “bully and harass” the witnesses so that in the future platforms might leave up potentially harmful content instead of restricting it. “I really struggle to see what the other aim here is, because the Republican Party is providing no other aim,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
A Democrat accused Republicans on the House Oversight Committee of hauling in former Twitter executives to help drive fundraising, including on the social network itself.
“It seems to me that we’re having these hearings so that people can beat their chests about Hunter Biden, maybe do some fundraising, get some headlines and ironically post those on Twitter,” Rep. Greg Casar (D-Tex.) said.
The comment was the latest barb traded between lawmakers during the contentious hearing, during which Republicans accused Twitter of unfairly removing conservative content and Democrats blasted it for catering to figures on the right and enabling incitement of violence ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Return to menu Tech newsletter reporter anchoring The Technology 202, focusing on politics and policy.The House Oversight Committee gaveled its hearing with former Twitter staffers back into session just past 2 p.m. on Wednesday, after a sudden power outage in the congressional office building brought the proceedings to an abrupt halt.
“I apologize. We’ve never had this happen. The electricity went out,” said Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), who chairs the panel.
An exchange between Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) and Twitter’s former trust and safety head Yoel Roth got at an important point about Twitter’s organizational structure: The teams responsible for enforcing its rules on what users can say were not the same ones responsible for government relations.
Donalds pressed Roth on how much contact there was between his team and the Biden presidential campaign. Roth replied that he didn't know. When Donalds responded incredulously, Roth explained, "The people who interfaced with the campaigns were not part of my team or organization."
Conservatives have long argued that Silicon Valley favors Democrats by systematically suppressing right-wing viewpoints on social media. These allegations have evolved in nearly a half-decade of warnings, as politicians in Washington and beyond fixate on the industry’s communications with Democratic leaders, seeking to cast the opposing party as against free speech.
The Twitter Files show no evidence of such a plot. Conservative influencers and stories from conservative platforms regularly draw a massive audience on social media. But this hearing is the latest effort to advance an increasingly popular Republican argument.
Return to menu Technology policy reporterThe hearing will now resume at 2 p.m. because power has been restored, a committee aide said. The House Recording Studio is working on getting video up and running again, the person added.
Audible gasps rang out in the room as the lights and power shut off completely during a hearing with former Twitter executives in the Rayburn House Office Building, before partially returning seconds later.
Leaders on the House Oversight Committee quickly huddled on the dais to chart their next steps, as some members expressed confusion and dismay, with one unidentified lawmaker remarking that they had never gone through anything similar in over a decade on Capitol Hill.
Within minutes a handful of U.S. Capitol Police officers trickled into the room as congressional aides and security officials tried to determine the extent of the power outage and the potential cause. A committee aide told The Washington Post that power had gone out in one of the quadrants in Rayburn, with computers and lights down in some congressional offices.
Return to menuRep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the committee chair, says the hearing will be on recess until 2:30 p.m., following a power outage that has interrupted an official feed of the hearing.
Return to menu Tech newsletter reporter anchoring The Technology 202, focusing on politics and policy.The lights have partially returned in the room, as power outages impacted a floor in the Rayburn House Office Building.
A committee aide told The Post that the power went down in a quadrant of the Rayburn House Office Building. Some of the computers and lights in the building went off, and the WiFi temporarily went down, the person said.
Witnesses told Rep. Connolly (D-Va.) on Feb. 8 that President Trump asked Twitter to remove posts from Chrissy Teigen after an online dispute in 2020. (Video: The Washington Post)
The Twitter hearing Wednesday revealed one eye-opening detail: former president Trump’s White House asked Twitter to remove a 2019 tweet from the model and internet personality Chrissy Teigen making fun of him.
In September 2019, Trump tweeted that Teigen was “filthy mouthed” and attacked Teigen’s husband, the musician John Legend, for not giving Trump more credit for signing a criminal justice reform bill into law. Teigen, who has 12 million followers, tweeted in response that Trump was a “p---y a-- b---h.”
Return to menuThe hearing is temporarily in recess after the lights went out and WiFi stopped working, delaying a line of questioning about Twitter’s handling of content related to Iran.