WASHINGTON, D.C. — Florida Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna made a major splash in the news cycle Thursday after grilling a former executive at Twitter regarding the social media platform’s past censorship.
Luna, a Republican who represents District 13 in the Tampa area, interrogated Twitter’s former global head of trust and safety, Yoel Roth, over the tech giant’s notorious suppression of the New York Posts’ Hunter Biden laptop bombshell in October 2020.
“Can you explain to me why the federal government would ever have interest in communicating through JIRA – mind you, a private cloud server – with social media companies without oversight to censor American voices?” Luna asked Roth at the House Oversight and Accountability Committee.
Luna: "Do you remember communicating on a private cloud server [with government entities] to remove a posting? Yes or no.
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) February 8, 2023
Roth: "I don't believe I can give you a yes or no answer."
Luna: "Well I'm gonna tell you right you you did it... It is highly illegal." pic.twitter.com/HiI79WbuLS
Without waiting for a response, she blasted the action as a First Amendment violation and went on to “refresh [Roth’s] memory” by displaying a flow chart showing that Twitter was among other social media companies that used JIRA to communicate with federal agencies.
“This, ladies and gentlemen, is joint action between the federal government and a private company to censor and violate the First Amendment,” Luna said. “It’s highly illegal, you are all engaged in this action, and I want you to know that you will all be held accountable.”
Yesterday’s hearing proved what we knew all along: that the federal government, social media companies & leftist non-profits teamed up to censor Americans and violate the First Amendment.
— Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (@RepLuna) February 9, 2023
You haven’t seen the end of this. Accountability is coming.🔥https://t.co/Cwbth1XAc3
Roth and other Twitter executives present at the Committee hearing denied the accusation that the government influenced their decision to censor the Post’s bombshell news. The FBI also rejected Luna’s assertion.
“The FBI does not instruct or direct any social media company to censor an account or remove information from their platform,” the Bureau said in a statement. Private sector entities independently make decisions about what, if any, action they take on their platforms and for their customers in response to information we share.”
Luna’s office did not immediately return a request for more information about the promised accountability. Rep. Clay Higgins, a fellow Republican from Louisiana, hinted at what she may have in mind, however.
“You, ladies and gentlemen, interfered with the United States of America 2020 presidential election, knowingly and willingly,” Higgins said. “That’s the bad news, it’s gonna get worse because this is the investigation part. Later comes the arrest part. Your attorneys are familiar with that.”
