Marjorie Taylor Greene Assails Ex-Twitter Execs For Banning Her Account—Accuses One Of Endorsing Child Sexualization

Topline

Marjorie Taylor Greene laid into former Twitter executives in a House Oversight Committee hearing Wednesday for banning her account in 2020 and accused former Head of Trust and Safety Yoel Roth of endorsing child sexualization, a claim Twitter owner Elon Musk made previously that led to right-wing harassment against Roth.

U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

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Key Facts

Greene began her five-minute speech by telling the three former Twitter executives testifying before the committee: “You can consider your speech canceled during my time, because you canceled mine.”

Twitter’s ban on Greene’s account in January 2020 for violating its policy against Covid-19 misinformation prevented her from communicating with constituents during her 2020 election campaign, she said, noting the account was reinstated after she won the election in November of that year.

Greene also renewed a claim made by Twitter owner Elon Musk in December accusing Roth of suggesting minors be given access to the gay dating website Grindr, saying, “here’s something that disgusts me about you.”

Greene was referring to Roth’s dissertation at the University of Pennsylvania that explored the possibility of a safer alternative to dating apps for LGBTQ youth—something Musk highlighted in a series of Tweets after Roth resigned from the company, and which led to threats and harassment that Roth said forced him to sell his home and move.

She also noted the 2021 lawsuit filed against Twitter by a minor and his mother for failing to remove sexual abuse videos of him, calling Twitter’s conduct “repulsive” and asking, “What were my tweets? Let’s talk about them,” before displaying her tweets contesting the legitimacy of the Covid-19 vaccine and effectiveness of masks, which led to her ban from Twitter.

Roth explained during the hearing that Greene was suspended after multiple written warnings against violating the platform’s now-defunct policy against Covid-19 misinformation.

Key Background

The GOP-led committee on Wednesday held a hearing to probe Twitter executives about their decision to remove a New York Post story about Hunter Biden’s laptop from the social media platform ahead of the 2020 presidential election. The story revealed the contents of a laptop that once belonged to the president’s son and contained information suggesting then-Vice President Joe Biden had contact with his son’s Ukrainian business partners. Republicans have cast the move as an example of what they claim is left-leaning bias by social media companies. Oversight Chair James Comer, in his opening statement, tktkttk. Democrats on the committee, meanwhile, called Anika Collier Navaroli, a former Twitter employee-turned-whistleblower, as a witness, and highlighted Twitter’s role in allowing former President Donald Trump and “MAGA extremists” to promote false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump, Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said in his opening statement. In addition to Roth, former Chief Legal Officer Vijaya Gadde and former Deputy Counsel James Baker appeared before the committee.

Tangent

Greene is one of three GOP committee members who have been suspended from Twitter for violating its content moderation policies. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) was temporarily suspended from the platform in November 2021 after sharing a cartoon video that depicted him killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and swinging swords at Biden. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) was also briefly suspended in January 2021 for tweeting the false claim that the 2020 presidential election was rigged.

Surprising Fact

The hearing, which began at 10 a.m., was put on hiatus around 1 p.m. for about an hour, due to a an apparent power outage.

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