Breathing fire as she ripped into Twitter executives over their content moderation policies, Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina said the social media giant did a disservice to all Americans by refusing to allow all viewpoints about the coronavirus vaccine to be discussed.
As noted by the Washington Times, Mace spoke during a House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing on Wednesday that was called to discuss Twitter’s efforts to muzzle reporting about Hunter Biden’s laptop computer and the wider issue of Twitter deleting comments at the behest of federal agencies.
Twitter’s former chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde, former deputy general counsel James Baker and former head of trust and safety Yoel Roth appeared at the hearing.
Todays @GOPoversight hearing puts @twitter execs in the hot seat. Twitter has basically been a subsidiary of the FBI and other government agencies who successfully censored voices they disagreed with. Just cause. pic.twitter.com/KtTMzFHf0w
— Rep. Nancy Mace (@RepNancyMace) February 8, 2023
Mace said, “Twitter worked overtime to suppress accurate COVID information.”
Telling the former Twitter executives at the hearing “apparently, the views of a Stanford doctor are disinformation to you people,” she objected to Twitter’s efforts to muzzle content from Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford doctor who rejected the federal approach to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Then Mace got personal.
“I, along with many Americans, have long-term effects from COVID. Not only was I a long hauler, but I have effects from the vaccine. It wasn’t the first shot, but it was the second shot that I now developed asthma that has never gone away since I had the second shot,” she said.
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“I have tremors in my left hand, and I have the occasional heart pain that no doctor can explain. And I’ve had a battery of tests,” she said.
“I find it extremely alarming Twitter’s unfettered censorship spread into medical fields and affected millions of Americans by suppressing expert opinions from doctors and censoring those who disagreed with the CDC,” she said.
Mace said she and many others now live with regrets — and health issues.
“I have great regrets about getting the shot because of the health issues that I now have that I don’t think are ever going to go away. And I know that I’m not the only American who has those kinds of concerns,” she said.
.@RepNancyMace: You’re not a doctor, right?
Gadde: No I’m not.
Mace: What makes you think you or anyone else at Twitter have the medical expertise to censor actual, accurate CDC data?
Gadde: I’m not familiar with these particular situations.
Mace: Yeah, I’m sure you’re not. pic.twitter.com/GJaoVwAoGu
— MRCTV (@mrctv) February 8, 2023
Mace then turned her focus on Gadde.
“Where did you go to medical school?” she asked.
Gadde said she had not, leading Grace to ask how Twitter could then censor doctors. After Gadde replied that the goal of Twitter was to “protest individuals,” Mace snapped.
Do you know someone who suffered effects from the COVID vaccine?
Yes: 100% (2 Votes)
No: 0% (0 Votes)
“You guys censored Harvard-educated doctors, Stanford-educated doctors, doctors that are educated in the best places in the world, and you silenced those voices,” Mace said.
Mace then summed up Twitter’s COVID-19 efforts.
“This is what Twitter did. They labeled this as inaccurate. It is the government’s own data. It’s ridiculous that we’re even having to have this conversation today. It’s not just about the laptop this is about medical advice that expert doctors were trying to give Americans because social media companies like Twitter were silencing their voices,” she said.
