On March 9, 2023, Taibbi and Shellenberger testified before the new subcommittee. The ranking Democrat, Del. Stacey Plaskett, attacked them as Musk’s “so-called journalists.” Republicans called them whistleblowers. [1] A month earlier, former Twitter executives had told the Oversight Committee that blocking the laptop story was a mistake but denied any government order. [2] Testimony and documents entered that day showed Twitter had also logged requests from Republicans and the Trump White House. [3]
In November 2023 Taibbi and Shellenberger testified again, this time on CTIL and the wider network. [4] The subcommittee’s December 2024 final report ran about 17,000 pages and concluded that the federal government had pressured platforms to censor Americans. [5]
The hearings put a large documentary record into the public domain, much of it useful. They did not produce a single finding by a neutral fact-finder. Both parties used the same exhibits to tell opposite stories.
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