Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) grilled former Twitter executives Yoel Roth, Vijaya Gadde and James Baker for their involvement with the FBI and the shadow banning of her account.
Twitter shadow-banned millions of conservatives, including myself! They must be held accountable. pic.twitter.com/i5360gXPzl
— Rep. Lauren Boebert (@RepBoebert) February 8, 2023
At Twitter, Yoel Roth was the former Head of Trust and Safety, Vijaya Gadde was the general counsel and head of legal policy and James Baker was the former deputy general counsel.
Baker was also an FBI lawyer at the time. He had been with Twitter since 2020.
The former executives testified before the GOP-led House Oversight Committee.
Boebert began her questioning by asking the former executives about their collusion with the FBI.
“Mr. Roth, while at Twitter, how many meetings did you have with the FBI?” she asked.
“I couldn’t say for sure,” Roth responded.
“More than ten?” Boebert asked.
“That’s a reasonable estimate, I couldn’t say for sure,” Roth replied.
“More than 50?” the congresswoman asked again.
“That seems a bit high,” Roth stated.
The U.S. congresswoman later asked Roth how many former FBI agents worked at Twitter during his time there.
“I’m aware of perhaps two,” Roth replied.
Boebert stated that the House Oversight Committee is aware of “at least” nine FBI agents who worked at Twitter during Roth’s time there.
The Colorado congresswoman also asked Roth if the FBI ever asked him to conduct any illegal acts.
“I’m not a lawyer, but certainly not to the best of my recollection or knowledge,” he answered.
Boebert debunked the former executives’ claims that Twitter never colluded with the federal government by implying that James Baker “was the collusion.”
“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 — are the collusion between the federal government and the FBI,” she said.
Lauren Boebert goes SAVAGE mode on Twitter 1.0 Executives for silencing Americans, Election Interference: "You ARE the Collusion" 🔥
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) February 9, 2023
On Jan. 13, 2021, Lauren Boebert’s Twitter account was temporarily suspended. She had posted a tweet of Hillary Clinton being angry that she couldn’t rig her own election.
Upon suspension, her account was shadow-banned.
Thus, she asked Roth and Gadde whether they approved the shadow banning of her account.
“Mr. Roth, and Miss Gaddy, did either of you approve the shadow banning of my account at Lauren Boebert? Yes, or no?
“No I did not,” Roth said.
“Not to the best of my recollection,” Gadde replied.
“Well, let me refreshen your memory because on March 12, 2021, and Mr. Roth, I know you looked at it because fascist Twitter 1.0 had a public interest exceptions policy which means for members of Congress, to be shadowbanned, it had to go before you,” Boebert said.
“So, I’ll ask again, did you shadow ban my account, yes or no?” she continued.
Roth again denied any involvement in suspending Boebert’s account.
His response led Boebert to retaliate by saying, “So the answer is Mr. Roth? Yes. You did. I found out last night from my Twitter staff that you suspended my account for this tweet.”
“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 was taking place because of you four sitting here. The Hunter Biden laptop story was suppressed,” Boebert continued.
Boebert concluded her remarks by demanding that section 230 protections be removed from “big tech” companies.
Section 230 provides immunity to online platforms, such as Twitter, from civil liabilities.
