Today’s episode of Republicans Behaving Badly is spotlighting a meeting of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, supposedly focusing on suppression of a news story from the New York Post concerning Hunter Biden’s laptop by Twitter.
It’s true that the social media giant limited distribution of messages highlighting aspects of the story. Former Twitter boss Jack Smith has admitted (and apologized) as much, saying the action was of limited duration and taken because it resembled Russian misinformation campaigns.
Republicans on the committee weren’t interested in Twitter’s reasoning, seeing the action as proof of interference in the 2020 presidential election.
I believe the real purpose of all the GOP’s investigative committees is to change public opinion by introducing conspiracy theories in public hearings that are then reported by a often feckless press as somehow based on facts.
The topic at hand yesterday was Twitter, which for a time was –in terms of influence– a major player on the American political stage. Framing for this hearing was built around the oft-repeated claim that the social media platform discriminated against Republicans and those with conservative viewpoints.
The FBI, which was during this period under the management of the Trump Justice Department, denied any involvement with removing or suppressing Tweets.
If you want a video description of the hearing, I refer you to this statement by Rep. Katie Porter:
There were several hours of grandstanding by politicians on both sides of the aisle.
Georgia’s Rep. Margie Taylor Greene was upset because Twitter banned her from the platform for messaging suggesting violence towards Democratic politicians.
She specifically went after Yoel Roth, Twitter’s former head of trust and safety, suggesting that he was a pedophile. Roth testified that he had to sell his home and move after becoming the target of online harassment following online smears from new owner Elon Musk.
Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana accused former Twitter executives of allowing the FBI to help Joe Biden and strongly inferred that arrests were forthcoming.
Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina used her time to express her regrets about being influenced by Tweets to get a COVID vaccination.
Florida’s Rep Byron Donalds did highlight an instance where the Biden campaign asked for photos to be taken down, only to learn those tweets contained non consensual nude photos of Hunter Biden.
New York’s Democratic Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez asked questions leading to the revelation that Twitter changed its own content moderation policy after Trump violated it, in order to accommodate his hateful tweets and try to keep him on the platform.
DC’s Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton pointed out the similarities with the GOP’s last major congressional investigation, saying, "Like Benghazi before, Republicans are on a taxpayer-funded expedition to attack their political rivals, and they're feeding the flames of conspiracy in the process"
What did come out of the hearing was testimony that the Trump administration regularly pressured Twitter about removing posts, while the Biden administration (as opposed to the campaign pre-election) has never done that.
While the committee was meeting, Rolling Stone posted an article saying the social media company maintained a database of take-down interactions with the Trump administration and right wing groups. Rep. Jamie Raskin asked that it be included in the official record of the hearing.
We also learned that the social media company understood its platform was being used to foment violence in advance of January 6, but that efforts to restrict those messages were ignored by top management.
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Today’s Political Wisdom
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