The Trump White House requested that Twitter remove a 2019 tweet calling the then-president a “pussy ass bitch,” a former employee testified Wednesday.
Anika Collier Navaroli, who worked on Twitter’s content moderation team, served as the Democrats’ witness at a House Oversight and Government Accountability Committee hearing addressing the social media giant’s censorship practices. She previously testified to the committee that Twitter was too lenient with former President Donald Trump’s alleged violations of company policy.
The Trump White House sought to have tweets critical of the president removed from the platform, according to Collier Navaroli. One of these tweets came from model Chrissy Teigen, who called Trump “a pussy ass bitch.”
lol what a pussy ass bitch. tagged everyone but me. an honor, mister president.
— chrissy teigen (@chrissyteigen) September 9, 2019
“The White House reached out to ask that this tweet be removed. It was my team’s job, to spell underneath the policy for abusive behaviors. We evaluate it underneath our insults policy,” Collier Navaroli told Democratic Florida Rep. Maxwell Frost. “At that time up to three insults were allowed, and so it was our job to determine how many insults was included within that phrase.”
“So the Trump White House reached out, not an agency, but the White House reached out and requested that you remove the tweet?” Frost clarified.
“Yes,” Collier Navaroli confirmed.
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The Twitter Files revealed that Twitter maintained open lines of communications with elected officials and campaigns, who routinely asked Twitter to take action against certain tweets or accounts. Democratic California Rep. Adam Schiff was frequently in contact with the social media giant, requesting that tweets about one of his staffers be removed and the content ultimately be made unsearchable. The staffer, Sean Misko, reportedly worked closely with a whistleblower who came to Schiff’s office during the first Trump impeachment.
Schiff also requested that RealClearInvestigations journalist Paul Sperry be suspended from Twitter in Nov. 2020. Sperry was ultimately kicked off the platform in Aug. 2022. (RELATED: Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna Says Censoring The Hunter Biden Story Was ‘Just Wrong’)
The Biden campaign asked Twitter to remove pictures from Hunter Biden’s laptop that showed the then-candidate’s son naked and using drugs.