During the House Oversight Committee Hearing: Twitter’s Role in Suppressing the Biden Laptop Story, Anna Paulina Luna questions Yoel Roth, Twitter’s former head of Trust and Safety, on collaboration with the federal government to censor American voices on Jira Software.
Transcript
Chairman: Chair recognizes Ms. Luna for 5 minutes.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna: Thank you, Chairman. Mr. Roth, Mr. Roth. Have you communicated with government officials ever on a platform called Jira? Yes or no? Real quick answer, were on the clock.
Mr. Roth: Not to the best of my recollection.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna: Not to your recollection. Great. If you did, in the event, communicate who would have had access to this platform?
Mr. Roth: That’s the nature of my confusion.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna: Okay.
Mr. Roth: Jira . . .
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna: Did you ever speak to government officials on Jira regarding taking down social media posts?
Mr. Roth: Again, not to the best of my recollection.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna: 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. I want to let you know that this is a violation of the First Amendment and the federal government is colluding with social media companies to censor Americans.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna: Mr. Chairman, I ask for unanimous consent to submit these graphics into record and Mr. Roth, I’m going to refresh your memory for you. This flowchart behind me . . . This flow chart shows the following federal agencies, social media companies, Twitter, leftist non-profits and organizations communicating regarding their version of misinformation using Jira, a private cloud server. On this chart I want annotate that the Department of Homeland Security, which has the following branches: Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency also known as CISA, Countering Foreign Intelligence Task Force, now known as the Misinfo, Disinfo and Malformation MDM. This was again used against the American people. The Election Partnership Institute or the Election Integrity Partnership EIP which includes the following Stanford internet Observatory, University of Washington Center for Informed Public, Graphica, and Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, and potentially, according to what we found on the final report by EIP, the DNC, the Center for Internet Security CIS, a nonprofit funded by DHS, the National Association of Secretaries of State, also known as NASS and the National Association of State Election Directors NASD, and in this case, because there are other social media companies involved, Twitter. What do all these groups, though, have in common? And I’m going to again refresh your memory, they were all communicating on a private cloud server known as Jira.
Now the screenshot behind, the screenshot behind me, which is an example of one of thousands? Shows on November 3, 2020 that you, Mr. Roth, a Twitter employee, were exchanging communications on Jira, a private cloud server, with CISA, NASS, NASED and Alex Stamos who now works at Stanford and is a former security of, security officer at Facebook, to remove a posting. Do you now remember communicating on a private cloud server to remove a posting? Yes or no?
Mr. Roth: I wouldn’t agree with the characterization . . .
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna: I don’t care if you agree. This is you, this is your stuff. Yes or no, did you communicate with a private entity, the government agency, on a private cloud serve, yes or no?
Mr. Roth: The question was if I . . .
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna: Yes or no? yeah I’m on time, yes or no?
Mr. Roth: Mame, I don’t believe I can give you a yes or no answer to that question.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna: Well I’m going to tell you right now that you did and we have proof of it. This, ladies and gentlemen, is joint action between the government and a private company to censor and violate the First Amendment. This is also known, and I’m so glad that there’s many attorneys on this panel, Joints State Actors. It’s highly illegal. You were all engaged in this action, and I want you to know that you will be all held accountable.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna: Miss Gadde, are you still in CISA’s Cybersecurity Advisory Council? Yes or no?
Ms. Gadde: Yes, I am.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna: Okay, for those who have said that this is a pointless hearing, and I just want to let you guys all know we found that Twitter was, indeed, communicating with the federal government to censor Americans, I’d like to remind you that this was all in place before January 6th, so to say that these mechanisms weren’t in place, and to make it about January 6th, I want to let you know that you guys were actually in control of all the content and clearly we have proof of that. Now, if you don’t think that this is important to your constituents and the American people, from those saying that this is a point hearing, I suggest you find other jobs. Chairman I yield my time.
