Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) called out a witness during Thursday’s Weaponization of the Federal Government hearing who accused the select subcommittee of spreading conspiracy theories about government censorship.
Olivia Troye, a former adviser to former Vice President Mike Pence, made her objection to the committee’s work clear from the beginning of her testimony when she claimed the lawmakers have been engaging in “politically motivated fantasy detached from reality” over the past year.
“Would one of those conspiracy theories be that government-funded agencies were flagging and trying to censor official congressional accounts on social media?” Massie wondered.
After claiming to have no knowledge of that taking place, the Republican quickly brought her up to speed.
He pointed to his tweet from May 19, 2021, below:
Here’s a comprehensive study that tracked re-infections and COVID complications for 187,549 people with prior SARS-CoV2 infection.
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) May 19, 2021
Conclusion: Effectiveness of immunity due to prior infection is the same as for the Pfizer vaccine.https://t.co/bf2RrF1pHo
Another witness, author and Twitter Files journalist Michael Shellenberger, explained how the post was flagged by the government-funded Stanford Virality Project as misinformation, and was then “labeled or censored in some other way.”
Massie asked Troye if she still believed it was a “conspiracy theory” that this took place.
The witness argued the social media giant must have “flagged [the post] for a reason,” but the lawmaker wondered if there’s ever a “good reason to censor a member of Congress."
“I bring this up to show, No. 1, that your testimony is false," he said, "but No. 2, if they can do this to a member of Congress’ official account, they can do this to anybody."
Government-funded organizations were flagging official congressional accounts, including mine, to get posts censored on social media. If the government will attempt to censor a member of Congress's communications to his constituents, the government will censor anyone. pic.twitter.com/kvD3s9XlMv
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) November 30, 2023