Twitter House hearing room abruptly loses power, halting hearing
The lights go out in the middle of a House Oversight Committee hearing featuring testimony from former Twitter executives.
A House Oversight Committee hearing meant to put former Twitter executives and their actions under a spotlight, but the room suddenly went dark in the middle of the questioning.
A power outage brought the hearing to a halt while Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Ala., was asking questions about how Twitter allowed supporters of terror to use the social media platform to promote their agendas. Palmer noted that Twitter banned former President Donald Trump after an examination of his tweets and how they were interpreted, yet they continued to allow Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to use Twitter.
As the congressman uttered the words, "Ayatollah Khameini," the room went dark.
"Did Twitter do that?" someone could be heard asking.
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"Sounds like the Green New Deal to me," Palmer joked.
Immediately prior to beginning a line of questioning about Trump and Khamenei, Palmer pointed to how the Taliban has been allowed to post violent messages on Twitter with impunity. Palmer referenced a Princeton University study from 2022 that found that the Taliban "weaponized" Twitter in order to control information in Afghanistan, and how Twitter's policies failed to stop them. At the hearing, Twitter executives failed to provide an explanation.
Former Twitter executives appeared before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023 (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
After a lengthy break, the hearing resumed with Chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., apologizing and allowing Palmer to resume. He continued where he left off by bringing attention to Khamenei tweeting that Israel should be "removed and eradicated." While Trump was kicked off the platform, Khamenei and his tweets remain.
"You understand how that looks, how hypocritical that is?" Palmer asked the witnesses, receiving no response.
The stated purpose of the hearing was to address how Twitter blocked sharing of a report on Hunter Biden's laptop by the New York Post prior to the 2022 election. Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said in May 2021 that blocking the Hunter Biden story was a "total mistake."
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Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, referenced communications between Twitter and the FBI, suggesting that federal authorities influenced Twitter's decision-making.
"I think you guys got played by the FBI," Jordan said.
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