Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) exclusively told Breitbart News Friday that Twitter’s former CEO Jack Dorsey lied to Congress in 2018 about the platform’s policy of shadow banning conservatives.
“Twitter shadow banned conservatives, clearly interfered in the election, and then lied under oath about it,” Stefanik said.
“The House GOP Majority will investigate this abuse of power and put an end to Big Tech’s bias and targeted censorship,” she added.
According to the second round of “Twitter Files” released Thursday, several conservative media personalities, like Charlie Kirk to Dan Bongino, were shadow-banned on the platform under the guise of “Visibility Filtering”:
Dorsey testified to Congress in September 2018 that Twitter does not shadow ban Republicans.
“I want to read a few quotes about Twitter’s practices and I just want you to tell me if they’re true or not,” Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA), said. “Social media is being rigged to censor conservatives. Is that true of Twitter?”
Dorsey responded, “No.”
“Are you censoring people?” Doyle followed up.
“No,” Dorsey said.
“Twitter’s shadow-banning prominent Republicans… is that true?” Doyle asked again.
“No,” Dorsey said.
In the same hearing, Dorsey was asked by then-Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) if Twitter discriminated against Republicans’ points of view.
“Do you discriminate more on philosophy, like anti-conservative versus pro-liberal?” Barton questioned.
“No, our policies and our algorithms don’t take into consideration any affiliation, philosophy or viewpoint,” Dorsey responded.
Dorsey appears to have also lied to the media. When Fox News’s Sean Hannity in 2018 if “Twitter has ever been involved in shadow banning,” Dorsey said no.
“We do not shadowban according to political ideology or viewpoint,” he responded:
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.