House Democrats and Republicans sparred Thursday over how Twitter handles government requests for Twitter to review posts, in the second House committee showdown over reports known as the “Twitter Files” released by several journalists on the platform.
Republicans called in Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger, two of the journalists who released threads of the files, as witnesses in a hearing for the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Weaponization of the Federal Government. The hearing ramped up House GOP leaders’ accusations that tech companies are making content censorship decisions with an anti-conservative bias.
In the most heated moments, Democrats complained that another Taibbi “Twitter Files” thread was just posted shortly before the hearing started and not provided to them. They also pressed the journalists on how they obtained the files.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chairman of the committee, charged that the “government built a cozy relationship with Big Tech” — referencing communications reported by Taibbi and Shellenberger in the Twitter Files. He also cited the platform’s decision to block a New York Post story about Hunter Biden’s laptop in 2020 after intelligence officials said they suspected it could have been the result of a Russian intelligence operation.
“The information op was run on us, run on we the people. And if that’s not the weaponization of government, I don’t know what is,” Jordan said.
Democrats accused the House majority of choosing witnesses to advance a false narrative after former Twitter executives testified at a House Oversight Committee hearing last month that they did not have knowledge of Democrats making direct demands to remove content.
“Republicans have brought in two of Elon Musk’s public scribes to release cherry-picked, out of context emails and screenshots designed to promote his chosen narrative — Elon Musk’s chosen narrative that is now being parroted by the Republicans because the Republicans think these witnesses will tell a story that is going to help them out politically,” said Del. Stacey Plaskett (D-Virgin Islands), ranking member of the subcommittee.
