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Thursday 9 February 2023
Ex-Twitter execs deny pressure to block Hunter Biden story

Continued from Front “This appears to be the lat- ficials in the Trump adminis- ny files. separate inquiry into poten-
est effort by the House Re- tration had already warned The documents and data tial coordination between
Emboldened by Twitter’s publican majority’s most that Russia was working to largely show internal de- Russia and Trump’s 2016
new leadership in billionaire extreme MAGA members denigrate Joe Biden before bates among employees presidential campaign. Re-
Elon Musk — whom they to question and relitigate the White House election. over the decision to tem- publicans have long criti-
see as more sympathetic cized the FBI’s handling of
to conservatives than the both investigations.
company’s previous ad- “Even though many dis-
ministration — Republicans agree with how Twitter
used the hearing to push a handled the Hunter Biden
long-standing and unprov- matter, I believe that the
en theory that social me- public record reveals that
dia companies including my client acted in a man-
Twitter are biased against ner that was fully consistent
them. with the First Amendment,”
Committee Chairman Rep. Baker said in defending his
James Comer said the actions.
hearing is the panel’s “first For Democrats, Nava-
step in examining the coor- roli countered the GOP
dination between the fed- argument by testifying
eral government and Big about how Twitter allowed
Tech to restrict protected Trump’s tweets despite the
speech and interfere in the misinformation they some-
democratic process.” times contained.
The hearing continues a Navaroli testified to the Jan.
years-long trend of GOP 6 committee last year that
leaders calling tech com- Twitter executives often
pany leaders to testify tolerated Trump’s posts de-
about alleged political spite their false statements
bias. Democrats, mean- Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., center, talks with House Oversight and Accountability and violations of the com-
while, have pressed the Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, pany’s own rules because
companies on the spread R-Ohio, during a House Committee on Oversight and Accountability hearing titled "Protecting executives knew the plat-
Speech from Government Interference and Social Media Bias, Part 1: Twitter's Role in Suppressing
of hate speech and mis- the Biden Laptop Story" on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023, in Washington. form was his “favorite and
information on their plat- Associated Press most-used … and enjoyed
forms. having that sort of power.”
The witnesses Republicans There has been no evi-
subpoenaed were Roth, the outcome of the 2020 The Kremlin had interfered porarily censor links to the dence that Twitter’s plat-
Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s for- election,” White House in the 2016 race by hack- story about Hunter Biden. form is biased against con-
mer chief legal officer, and spokesperson Ian Sams said ing Democratic emails that The tweet threads lacked servatives; studies have
James Baker, the compa- in a statement Wednesday. were subsequently leaked, substantial evidence of a found the opposite when
ny’s former deputy general “This is not what the Ameri- and fears that Russia would targeted influence cam- it comes to conservative
counsel. can people want their meddle again in the 2020 paign from Democrats or media in particular. But
Democrats brought a wit- leaders to work on.” race were widespread the FBI, which has denied the issue continues to pre-
ness of their own, Anika The New York Post report- across Washington. any involvement in Twitter’s occupy GOP members of
Collier Navaroli, a former ed weeks before the 2020 Just last week, lawyers for decision-making. congress.
employee with Twitter’s presidential election that it the younger Biden asked Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-
content moderation team. had received from Trump’s the Justice Department to called the hearing a “fish- Cortez, D-N.Y., called the
She testified last year to the personal lawyer, Rudy Giu- investigate people who say ing expedition” seeking to hearing an “abuse of pub-
House committee that in- liani, a copy of a hard drive they accessed his personal reheat bogus allegations lic resources.”
vestigated the Jan. 6 Capi- from a laptop that Hunter data. But they did not ac- claiming Biden somehow “We could be talking
tol riot about Twitter’s pref- Biden had dropped off 18 knowledge that the data influenced his son’s busi- about health care. We
erential treatment of Don- months earlier at a Dela- came from a laptop Hunter ness dealings in Ukraine. could be talking about
ald Trump until it banned ware computer repair shop Biden is purported to have Nonetheless, Republicans bringing down the cost
the then-president from the and never retrieved. Twitter dropped off at a computer including Comer, R-Ky., of prescription drugs. We
site two years ago. blocked people from shar- repair shop. have used the Post story, could be talking about
The hearing is the GOP’s ing links to the story for sev- The issue was also reignited which has not been inde- abortion rights, civil rights,
opening act into what law- eral days. recently after Musk took pendently verified by The voting rights,” she said. “But
makers promise will be a Months later, Twitter’s then- over Twitter as CEO and Associated Press, as the instead we’re talking about
widespread investigation CEO, Jack Dorsey, called began to release a slew basis for what they claim Hunter Biden’s half-fake
into President Joe Biden the company’s communi- of company information is another example of the laptop story. I mean this is
and his family, with the cations around the Post ar- to independent journal- Biden family’s “influence an embarrassment.”q
tech companies another ticle “not great.” He added ists, what he has called the peddling.”
prominent target of their that blocking the article’s “Twitter Files.” One of Wednesday’s wit-
oversight efforts. URL with “zero context” “Thank god for Matt Taibi. nesses, Baker, has been a
The White House criticized around why it was blocked Thank god for Elon Musk frequent target of Republi-
congressional Republicans was “unacceptable.” for allowing us to show the can scrutiny.
for staging “a bizarre po- The newspaper story was world that Twitter was ba- Baker was the FBI’s general
litical stunt,” hours after greeted at the time with sically a subsidiary of the counsel during the open-
Biden’s State of the Union skepticism due to questions FBI,” Rep. Nancy Mace, R- ing of two of the bureau’s
address where he detailed about the laptop’s origins, S.C., said, referencing one most consequential investi-
bipartisan progress in his including Giuliani’s involve- of the independent journal- gations in history: the Hillary
first two years in office. ment, and because top of- ists with access to compa- Clinton investigation and a