Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) said that the FBI needs some "serious reshaping" after seeing the latest Elon Musk Twitter file dump, which seemed to say that the bureau had participated in possible free speech violations.
Gaetz said that House Republicans plan to hold the FBI accountable for its actions when they take the House majority in January.
.@FBI has a lot to answer for after the latest drop of #TwitterFiles6 @Jim_Jordan @RepMikeJohnson @RepAndyBiggsAZ @RepDanBishop and I will be asking the questions.
Clear your calendar.
— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) December 16, 2022
The sixth dump of Twitter files was given to independent journalist Matt Taibbi on Friday, and it showed what Taibbi called a "master-canine quality," according to the New York Post.
More than 150 emails from the FBI to Twitter showed the FBI treating Twitter as a "subsidiary," directing and demanding that tweets be labeled "misinformation" and flagging accounts that posted those tweets.
“Twitter’s contact with the FBI was constant and pervasive as if it were a subsidiary,” Taibbi wrote.
The emails were between the FBI and Yoel Roth, who was the head of the Trust and Safety department of Twitter but was fired by Musk when the emails and other actions came to light.
Roth was also responsible for the platform censoring the Hunter Biden laptop story in October 2020, which directly impacted the 2020 presidential election.
Other GOP lawmakers agreed with Gaetz that the FBI needs to be dealt with and held accountable for what it did to censor free speech.
"Anyone that cares about free speech should be outraged," Rep. James Comer (KY) said. "Whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat, this has to stop."
"Does anyone still trust the FBI?" Rep. Jim Jordan (OH) posted to the GOP House Judiciary Committee Twitter account.
And Rep. Josh Hawley (MO) tweeted, "And if FBI used Twitter to censor, you bet they also used Google and Facebook."
Taibbi said that some of the accounts censored were satirical in nature, but were still censored. Most notably The Babylon Bee, which satirizes both sides of the political aisle, was repeatedly censored and then suspended after it jokingly named transgender U.S. Health Secretary Rachel Levine "Man of the Year."
Not surprising that past Twitter couldn't take a joke, most leftists can't. But as for censoring harmless humor, that is hopefully a thing of the past at Twitter.
