{"id":1,"date":"2023-02-08T17:33:20","date_gmt":"2023-02-08T17:33:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews.decenttechnoworld.com\/?p=1"},"modified":"2023-02-09T05:27:34","modified_gmt":"2023-02-09T05:27:34","slug":"hello-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews.decenttechnoworld.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/08\/hello-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Twitter exec details \u2018homophobic and antisemitic\u2019 abuse over handling of Hunter Biden story"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A former\u00a0Twitter\u00a0executive testified on Wednesday that he was forced to leave and sell his home due to a campaign of \u201chomophobic and antisemitic\u201d harassment over the company\u2019s handling of a New York Post story about Hunter Biden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yoel Roth, the former head of safety at Twitter, made the comments while speaking with a committee in the newly Republican-controlled House of Representatives, at a hearing convened to scrutinize the social network\u2019s handling of a 2020 report on Joe Biden\u2019s son.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roth said the release of the so-called Twitter Files by Twitter\u2019s new CEO,\u00a0Elon Musk, leading to a campaign of harassment against him and other employees. The harassment intensified when Musk and others amplified \u201cdefamatory\u201d claims that he condones pedophilia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Twitter Files, shared by Musk in December 2022, was a series of internal records showing how the company initially stopped the story \u2013 which the Post said was based on a copy of Hunter Biden\u2019s laptop hard drive from Donald Trump\u2019s then personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani \u2013 from being shared, citing the company\u2019s internal polcy on \u201chacked materials\u201d and concerns from Biden\u2019s campaign, among other factors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roth said the release of the Twitter Files, which included his name and with those of other decision makers at the company, had \u201cvery real consequences\u201d for his safety. \u201cThis lie led directly to a wave of homophobic and antisemitic attacks against me \u2026 of which Twitter has removed just little. And following the Daily Mail\u2019s decision to publish where I am living. I have to leave my home and sell it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roth noted he was not the only one affected, saying lower-level Twitter staff around the world, including the Philllipines, \u201chad their families threatened and experienced harm equal to or greater than what I\u2019ve experienced\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cThose are the consequences for this type of online harassment and speech,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat representing the District of Columbia, said Roth\u2019s testimony showed dangers of \u201clegitimizing unsubstantiated conspiracy theories about the deep state, big tech and government and government censorship for political gain\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCommittee\u00a0Republicans\u00a0are holding a match to a powder keg,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her point was underscored when the extremist Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green, who was temporarily banned from Twitter for sharing Covid-19 missinformation, used her questioning period to attack Roth, doubling down on unfounded and homophobic conspiracy theories.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cI\u2019m so glad you\u2019ve lost your jobs,\u201d she said. \u201cI am so glad Elon Musk bought Twitter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wednesday\u2019s hearing underscored a renewed interest from Republicans in wielding their power to pursue unproven claims that social media firms have anti-conservative biases, fanning partisan flames along the way. The lawmakers seem to have found an ally in Musk, who has given more fuel to such assertions with the Twitter Files and the other tweets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Experts say Musk\u2019s takeover of Twitter and sympathetic views towards such conspiracy theories could increase the risk for misinformation and harassment on this platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is somebody who flirts with conspiracy theories, has regularly retweeted conspiracy theories has re platformed conspiracy theorists and hate mongers and the white supremacists and all kinds of nefarious actors,\u201d Jessica J Gonz\u00e1lez, co-chief executive officer of the civil rights group Free Press, said of Musk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other former senior Twitter staff, including Vijaya Gadde, the social network\u2019s former chief legal officer, former deputy general counsel James Baker and former safety leader Anika Collier Navaroli, also testified in the hearing, stating that decisions around content moderation are complex and difficult to take.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democratic lawmakers said during the hearing that attacks on former Twitter staff\u00a0<\/strong>were a \u201cdistraction\u201d and that the witnesses had already declared under oath there was no collusion between the government and the Twitter to suppress conservative speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re wasting our time here bullying former Twitter employees,\u201d said Maxwell Frost, a Democratic representative from Florida. \u201cI\u2019ve been sitting here for over two hours and I\u2019m not really seeing the point of this hearing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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A former\u00a0Twitter\u00a0executive testified on Wednesday that he was forced to leave and sell his home due to a campaign of \u201chomophobic and antisemitic\u201d harassment over the company\u2019s handling of a … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[5,3,4],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews.decenttechnoworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews.decenttechnoworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews.decenttechnoworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews.decenttechnoworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews.decenttechnoworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/usnews.decenttechnoworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14,"href":"https:\/\/usnews.decenttechnoworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions\/14"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews.decenttechnoworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews.decenttechnoworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews.decenttechnoworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews.decenttechnoworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}