Washington, Feb 9 (Representative) US Congresswoman Lauren Boebert on Wednesday lambasted the former Twitter executives Vijaya Gadde, and Yoel Roth over conspiracy with the FBI and shadow banning her Twitter account. Ms Boebert, during a Congressional hearing on Wednesday, made these allegations and blamed the former Twitter executives for suppressing several important stories.“Mr Roth, and Miss Gadde, did either of you approve the shadow banning of my account at Lauren Bobert? Yes or no? No. I did not. Not to the best of my recollection…Well, let me refresh your memory, because, on March 12, 2021, and Mr Ross, I know you looked at it because fascistTwitter 1.0 had a public interest exceptions policy, which means for members of Congress to be shadowbanned, it had to go before you, Mr Roth. So I’ll ask again, did you shadow-ban my account? Yes or no?,” Ms Boebert questioned the executives for their collusion with the FBI. When Mr Roth responded by saying, “Again, not to the best of my recollection.” She retaliated back by saying, “So the answer is Mr Roth? Yes. You did. I found out last night from Twitter staff that you suppressed my account for this tweet.”
Ms Boebert, further called out Twitter’s former deputy general counsel, James Baker, who was fired by Elon Musk over ‘Twitter Files’. He was blamed for allegedly censoring important information.Jim Baker was a former top Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) lawyer who had been with Twitter since 2020.“We have Mr Baker here, a former FBI agent, and there seems to be a revolving door between the FBI and Twitter itself. Even Mr Baker said that there was no collusion between the federal government and Twitter. But, Mr Baker, that’s you. You are the collusion between the federal government and the FBI. Now, this is such a problem because we’re seeing censorship all over,” Ms Boebert said during the Congressional hearing. During the hearing, the Republicans grilled the social media executives – including former Twitter deputy counsel James Baker – over Twitter’s handling of the story regarding stealing of Hunter Biden’s laptop. Hunter Biden is the son of US President Joe Biden.
“You silenced members of Congress from communicating with their constituents. You silenced me from communicating with the American people over a freaking joke. Now, who the hell do you think you are? Election interference? Yeah, I would say that that was taking place because of you four sitting here. The Hunter Biden laptop story was suppressed,” Lauren Boebert said. According to CNN, Vijaya Gadde, a former chief legal officer of Twitter, said that after changing its mind on blocking the Hunter Biden story, the firm should have reinstated the New York Post’s account right away. Twitter’s former Head of Trust and Safety Yoel Roth testified there was a lot of confusion over how to handle the story amid an increased emphasis on tackling misinformation – specifically from malign foreign actors – on their platform, according to CNN. The Twitter executives argued that the social media platform made mistakes in its handling of the New York Post story, but emphasised that the heightened focus on combating disinformation complicated the company’s decision-making process.