Former Twitter executives testified before Congress and revealed that the White House tried to remove a contentious tweet posted by model, author, and TV personality, Chrissy Teigen.
The tweet in question referred to former Republican President Donald Trump as a "p*ssy a** b*tch."
Wednesday's hearing in front of the House Oversight Committee was titled, “Protecting Speech from Government Interference and Social Media Bias, Part 1: Twitter’s Role in Suppressing the Biden Laptop Story."
The title referred to a 2020 New York Post article claiming to have discovered a "smoking gun" correspondence tied to then Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
CNBC suggested the congressional hearing drew from a common Republican complaint of unsubstantiated bias against conservatives regarding content moderation policies on various social media platforms.
The former Twitter executives appearing before the Committee were chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde, former deputy general counsel James Baker, former Twitter policy official Annika Collier Navaroli, and former global head of trust and safety Yoel Roth.
At one point in the meeting, Democratic Representative Gerald Connolly of Virginia asked Navaroli about a 2019 case involving the Trump Administration sending Twitter specific instructions to evaluate and remove a tweet.
You can watch a portion of the hearing in the clip below.
Warning: NSFW language.
\u201cTwitter executives verify to the House Oversight Committee that the Trump White House tried to get Twitter to take down tweets from Chrissy Teigen that made fun of Trump.\u201d— Justin Baragona (@Justin Baragona) 1675873951
Navaroli confirmed that the White House sent a special request to remove Teigen's disparaging tweet.
She said that the White House:
“wanted it to come down because it was a derogatory statement directed towards the president.”
\u201cThe Trump WH wanted Teigen\u2019s tweet calling Trump a PAB taken down lol\u201d— Acyn (@Acyn) 1675873627
Navaroli later explained to Democratic Representative Maxwell Frost of Florida that the administration's request to evaluate Teigen's tweet fell under the abusive language policy–specifically the insults policy.
\u201c@justinbaragona Just imagine how busy Twitter executives would be if they tried to take down all the tweets that made fun of Tr*mp. That's a lot of tweets!\u201d— Justin Baragona (@Justin Baragona) 1675873951
Twitter did not take action on the tweet that Trump wanted to be removed.
Teigen's PAB tweet was in response to Trump complaining about Teigen's "boring" husband, musician John Legend, and “his filthy mouthed wife” for not taking action helping to pass the Criminal Justice Reform law.
By that point, Trump had blocked Teigen on Twitter.
Teigen was at a loss for words when her resurfaced tweet was verbalized before Congress.
But that didn't prevent her from responding with:
@chrissyteigen/Twitter
Twitter got a kick out of seeing her PAB tweet making a comeback.
I am so happy to have @chrissyteigen 's PAB statement back in the news!! She became a hero in the moment it was posted! 👊🏼💪🏽
— FriendOfNature (@anylengths66) February 8, 2023
\u201c@justinbaragona @yashar @chrissyteigen is a Legend! \ud83d\ude02\u201d— Justin Baragona (@Justin Baragona) 1675873951
Well, it’s now on Congressional record😂😂
— Chi Chi Plantagenet (@barbelle123) February 8, 2023
Chrissy wasn’t wrong
— JDG-Quintuple Vaxxed Hawkeye fan since birth (@Puttforcash) February 8, 2023
pic.twitter.com/uEO1uM1yNx
— 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐝𝐢 (@ChidiNwatu) February 8, 2023
had to watch that twice b/c it gave me joy
— Marc The Snark (I/Thou) (@MarcWitorsch) February 8, 2023
Your legacy is sealed, Queen
😂😂😂 #PAB
— Tara Dublin (@taradublinrocks) February 8, 2023
Love. Her. pic.twitter.com/OYtRbab4tE
— ProChoice 🇺🇸 (@Trout8Trout) February 8, 2023
Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk made a big deal out of exposing the "Twitter Files," outraged that Joe Biden's campaign would ask Twitter to suppress the Hunter Biden story.
Well, contrary to Musk's pronouncements, Biden was not president in 2020, Trump was. And this new revelation that the Trump administration pressured Twitter to remove a mean tweet is getting conspicuously little attention from the self-proclaimed first amendment champion.
I'm sure Musk's outraged tweet over a sitting administration pressuring a social media company to delete a tweet critical of the sitting president will come any minute now...
Any...minute...