According to a former employee interviewed by the House select committee, the company was willing to ignore warnings about real-world violence because they were so happy that President Donald Trump chose to use the platform.
The employee said that if any other user did the same thing, they would be removed from the platform immediately.
The employee, whose identity is being protected by the committee, was described as a member of the content moderation policy team throughout the next two years.
An employee of the company said they had warned company leaders about the potential for violence hours before the insurrection began. The top brass did not listen to the pleas, according to the employee.
The email said that they took "unprecedented steps and invested significant resources to prepare for and respond to the threats that emerged during the US election." While the company takes action against users who inciting violence, it has found it hard to predict violent outcomes.
The testimony was presented by Representative Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland.
During the first presidential debate, Trump told the Proud Boy to stand back and stand by. But the social network chose not to take action.
The employee was interviewed by the committee. It is clear from the presentation that not all of the interview was shared, and it is not clear what else the employee said.
Employee: My concern was that the former president for seemingly the first time was speaking directly to extremist organizations, and giving them directives. We had not seen that sort of direct communication before and that concerned me.
Interviewer: So, just to clarify further, you were worried and others at Twitter were worried that the president might use your platform to speak directly to folks who might be incited to violence.
Employee: Yes. I believe that Twitter relished in the knowledge that they were also the favorite and most used service of the former President and enjoyed having that sort of power within the social media ecosystem.
Interviewer: If President Trump were anyone else, would it have taken until Jan 8, 2021, for him to be suspended?
Employee: Absolutely not. If Donald — if former President Donald Trump were any other user on Twitter, he would have been permanently suspended a very long time ago.
Trump was on the platform completely unfettered. Then came the Dec. 19th and everything it inspired.
Employee: It felt as if, a mob was being organized, and they were gathering together their weaponry and their logic and their reasoning behind why they were prepared to fight. Prior to Dec 19, again, it was vague, it was nonspecific, but very clear that individuals were ready, willing and able to take up arms. After the tweet on Dec. 19, again, it became clear, not only were these individuals ready and willing but, the leader of their cause was asking them to join him in this cause and in fighting for this cause in D.C. on Jan. 6 as well.
On December 19, 2020, Trump wrote, "Peter Navarro releases 36-page report accusing election fraud more than enough to swing victory to Trump." Peter gave a report. It's impossible to lose the 2020 election. There was a big protest in D.C. Be there, it will be crazy.
The employee said they were shocked by the threats of violence that were made against the president. Users claimed they were ready for Civil War Part Two in the responses.
The employee said that he believed that Donald Trump was trying to get his supporters to come to D.C. on January 6th.
They said that they were worried about the potential for the gathering to become violent.
The vice president of public policy, Americas, said in a statement that the company is clear-eyed about its role in the broader information ecosystems surrounding the insurrection. She said that the company is looking at ways in which it can improve.
Several policy and product interventions were put in place to protect the public conversation. The Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers were both declared violent extremists in the year of 2020 and their accounts were permanently suspended for violating our policies.
On January 6th, we used the systems we had built leading up to the election to respond to the unprecedented attack in real-time and are committed to iterating on this work to address violent Extremism in the US and globally. The engagement with the select committee is continuing.
"Today's shocking testimony confirms what many of us have known for a long time: Big Tech has failed to rein in calls to violence on their platforms."
Benavidez said that the testimony of the former employee should be made public.
She said that the public needed to fully understand the company's role in fomenting the kinds of violence that threatened to overthrow democracy in the United States.
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