Republicans grilled ex-Twitter executives about censorship. They discovered Trump requested takedowns.

Did Elon Musk watch the identical listening to that everybody else did?

Late Wednesday evening, Twitter’s new proprietor Elon Musk tweeted(Opens in a brand new tab) “The Woke Stasi felt the warmth at present.” Musk’s followers knew what he was speaking about, replying with a photograph(Opens in a brand new tab) of former Twitter executives, whom Musk fired when he took over the corporate final yr, standing earlier than Congress. 

The photograph consists of Twitter’s former Chief Authorized Officer Vijaya Gadde and former Head of Belief and Security Yoel Roth, each common targets of conservatives on Twitter, getting ready to offer testimony earlier than the Home Oversight Committee throughout a listening to(Opens in a brand new tab) on “Twitter’s Position in Suppressing the Biden Laptop computer Story.” This was the primary main listening to of the committee since Republicans gained management of the Home this yr.

However, anybody who really watched the listening to would fail to notice such warmth being felt by these former Twitter executives. Quite the opposite, the listening to uncovered a particular occasion of then-President Donald Trump and his administration demanding Twitter take away a submit about Trump by mannequin Chrissy Tiegen.

Whereas being questioned by Democratic members of the Home, former Twitter worker Anika Collier Navaroli shared a particular occasion the place the corporate was contacted by the Trump administration in 2019 to demand the elimination of a tweet despatched by TV character Chrissy Tiegen.

In September of that yr, Trump tweeted(Opens in a brand new tab) an assault on Chrissy Tiegen’s husband, musician John Legend, in addition to Teigen herself, calling her Legend’s “filthy mouthed spouse.”

Later that evening, Teigen responded on Twitter, stating that Trump had tagged different individuals he criticized on Twitter, however didn’t add Teigen’s deal with in order that it will seem in her Twitter mentions.

“lol what a pussy ass bitch,” Teigen posted(Opens in a brand new tab). “tagged everybody however me. an honor, mister president.”

This revelation additionally led to an fascinating second(Opens in a brand new tab) the place Navaroli was requested by Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) to learn Teigen’s tweet earlier than Congress.

Your complete goal of this listening to for Republicans was to show that earlier than Musk got here alongside, Twitter was in cahoots with Democrats with a purpose to stifle the unfold of the Hunter Biden laptop computer story (A difficulty which Twitter rapidly reversed on the day they first blocked the story in 2020, and which subsequently drove the corporate to vary its insurance policies so such an occasion would by no means occur once more). But, the takeaway from the listening to is that Trump, who was the president on the time, really requested a “derogatory” tweet about him be eliminated. 

This trade additionally seems to be dangerous for Elon Musk, as effectively. Over the previous few months, Musk has offered numerous right-wing writers entry to inner paperwork, dubbed the Twitter Information, with a purpose to show Twitter was biased in opposition to Republicans earlier than he got here alongside. These releases additionally tried to point out that Twitter was working with the Democratic Occasion and the Joe Biden marketing campaign. But, no Twitter Information launch to date has lined any contacts between Twitter and Trump and his administration though Musk had supposedly offered unfettered entry to Twitter’s inner paperwork to those writers.

Additional underscoring the right-wing bias in Musk’s personal Twitter Information releases was a report(Opens in a brand new tab) from Rolling Stone printed throughout the listening to that confirmed with each former Twitter staff and Trump White Home officers that Republicans repeatedly made takedown requests to Twitter. In keeping with the report, the requests have been so in depth that Twitter needed to maintain a database for Republican takedown calls for.

As for the requests made by the Joe Biden marketing campaign to take away tweets associated to Hunter Biden, Twitter’s personal paperwork present that the takedowns have been solely carried out on posts that included non-consensual nude pictures of Biden’s son.