Whistleblower to Congress: Twitter ‘bent and broke’ own rules before Jan. 6

Twitter whistleblower Anika Collier Navaroli testified on February 8, 2023, before the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability during a hearing titled ”Protecting Speech from Government Interference and Social Media Bias, Part 1: Twitter’s Role in Suppressing the Biden Laptop Story.”

Navaroli told the Committee that “Twitter’s leadership bent and broke their own rules in order to protect some of the most dangerous speech on its platform.” She warned the committee: “If we do not fix social media, January 6th will happen again.”

Navaroli was the most senior expert on Twitter’s U.S. safety policy team at the time of the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The Signals Network represents Navaroli and provides her with support through its Whistleblower Protection Program.

In September 2022, Navaroli went public in an exclusive interview with Washington Post reporter Drew Harwell as one of the two Twitter whistleblowers who gave evidence to the U.S. House Committee investigating the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol. Shortly after, she was awarded the Ridenhour Prize for Truth-Telling for her courage in coming forward to speak truth to the committee.

“I do not believe that we are at a place that we can come to solutions because we do not know how these companies work,” Navaroli told the Oversight Committee. “We need to create space to hear from [content moderators] on the front lines. We need to give them protection so they can share their experiences. Only then can we begin to understand the full scope of the problem and find solutions.”

“We are sitting exactly one month [after] which the exact same playbook was played in Brazil,” she said. “Unless we do something, this will continue to happen again.” She told the Committee: “There is too much at stake for us to continue to do nothing.”

Congressman Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland and ranking member on the committee, called Navaroli a “patriotic hero” when introducing her on Wednesday.

You can read Navaroli’s full testimony to the committee here. Lawmakers questioned three other former Twitter employees in addition to Navaroli.

The Signals Network is an international 501(c)3 organization that supports whistleblowers who have shared public interest information with the press. Founded in 2017 by journalists, whistleblowers and lawyers, TSN provides end-to-end support to whistleblowers around the world and works with journalists to hold some the world’s most powerful institutions accountable in Big Tech and other sectors.

The Signals Network worked with the Government Accountability Project and the Project On Government Oversight to prepare Navaroli for the hearing.

For journalist inquiries, email sarah@thesignalsnetwork.org.