Republican Jim Jordan says there was a ‘comfortable relationship’ between the government and Big Tech and claims the FBI conspired to censor Hunter’s laptop during a hearing with Twitter Files reporters
- “I would never have thought in my life that in my country freedom of expression would be attacked as it has been done here,” said journalist Michael Shellenberger.
- “The internet is an instrument of censorship and control, and our government seems to be playing a central role,” Matt Taibbi said in his opening statements.
- It’s digital McCarthyism,’ Taibbi told committee of government censorship
The House panel investigating federal government ‘arming’ reported in the ‘Twitter Files’ got off to a fiery start Thursday as the Republican-led hearing kicked off with a series of sniper attacks between Representative Jim Jordan and the non-commissioned member. , Rep. Stacey Plaskett (D-Virgin Islands).
The witnesses, including Substack reporters Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger, were authorized by Elon Musk to review “voluminous” amounts of internal Twitter communications about possible working relationships between social media companies and government agencies.
In his opening statement, Taibbi told the panel that he had a lot of public interest when the first “Twitter Files” reports came out.
“My computer felt like a slot machine as the first tweet about the blocking of the Hunter Biden laptop story got 143 million impressions and 30 million engagements.”
Speaker Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, left, speaks during a House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill, February 9, 2023, in Washington
Twitter is accused of having an intimate relationship with government agencies.
Taibbi caught the attention of millions of viewers with the first episode focusing on Twitter’s internal discussions leading them to censor Hunter Biden’s laptop in the 2020 presidential election as some officials tried to explain that it had violated its “pirated material” policies.
“We learned that Twitter, Facebook, Google and other companies have developed a formal system to accept ‘requests’ for moderation from all corners of government: FBI, DHS, HHS, DOD, Global Engagement Center at State, even the CIA.”
Taibbi wrote, “Undeniably, making such lists is a form of numerical McCarthyism.”
“We just saw that with the Covid lab leak theory. Many of the institutions we are currently investigating initially dismissed the idea that Covid originated from a lab as “disinformation” and a conspiracy theory. Apparently, even the FBI takes it seriously. ‘
“The First Amendment, and an American population accustomed to free speech, is the best defense left against the censorship-industry complex,” he wrote.
“If there’s anything the Twitter files show, it’s that we risk losing this most precious right, without which all other democratic rights are impossible.”
This story will be updated.
Freelance journalist Matt Taibbi testifies before House committee about ‘Twitter Files’
President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden leave Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Johns Island, SC House Republicans first requested documents from Hunter and James Biden regarding foreign business dealings.
Hunter Biden’s laptop that was left at a computer repair shop – contents are in dispute, but almost everyone agrees it was damning
