Two journalists from the ‘Twitter Files’ will testify at the upcoming weapons hearing

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TThe House panel investigating the “weaponization” of the federal government will hear from reporters with access to internal Twitter communications as it explores alleged collusion between social media companies and the executive branch.

Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger will testify before the Select Subcommittee on Federal Government Armaments next Thursday, March 9, about their findings in the “Twitter Files,” a person familiar with the matter told the Washington Examiner. Twitter CEO Elon Musk handed over communication logs to prominent writers shortly after buying the social media giant.

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Taibbi released the first part of the Twitter files on Dec. 2, detailing the company’s handling of the New York Post story about Hunter Biden’s laptop. He also reported on the third round of files, which made public the internal reasons behind former President Donald Trump’s suspension from the platform. In the sixth file download, Taibbi reported how the FBI reported accounts to Twitter’s trust and security team for alleged misinformation.

Shellenberger published the fourth part, which explained how Twitter employees reacted to the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021. Their decisions ultimately influenced the decision to ban Trump. The seventh installment, which Shellenberger also reported on, showed Twitter’s interactions with intelligence agencies to suppress the New York Post laptop story.

This first hearing of the subcommittee on armaments set the stage for a two-year investigation into the federal government’s attitude toward free speech, particularly as it pertains to conservatives. Twitter will be a major target as House Republicans try to demonstrate how intelligence agencies improperly directed social media coverage of political events.

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Democrats denounced the hearing as a partisan show, even though they also have members on the panel. The list of witnesses for next week’s hearing has not yet been finalized.

Sarah Westwood contributed to this report.

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