‘Weaponized’ Gov’t: GOP Slam Censorship at Twitter Files Hearing While Dems Attack Journos

Republican lawmakers and self-professed liberal journalist testifiers bashed Big Tech coordination with “weaponized government” while Democrat lawmakers attacked the testifiers at a congressional hearing Thursday. 

The House Judiciary Committee held a March 9 hearing on the bombshell Twitter Files, which exposed that the government coordinated with Big Tech and pressured Twitter to censor Americans. “We are here focused on a weaponized government, a whole-of-government approach that has been turned against the American people,” Rep. Matt Gaetz(R-FL) said. Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Twitter Files journalists and testifiers Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger shared Gatez’s sentiment as they ripped government-Big Tech censorship.

The Twitter Files reporter Shellenberger called the FTC targeting him “chilling” and “disturbing.”  He added, “I never thought that would happen in the United States of America.” Gaetz replied, “The nexus to authoritarianism is the desire to control the nature of truth itself.” 

Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) emphasized how crucial free speech is to America. “It is a bedrock principle of our constitutional system that the government does not get to decide what speech is acceptable or true.”