House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiffâs (D-Calif.) office urged Twitter to ban a journalist, according to documents.
Journalist Matt Taibbi posted a photo of the email between Schiffâs office and Twitter with the caption, âHere, the office for Democrat and House Intel Committee chief Adam Schiff asks Twitter to ban journalist Paul Sperry.â
In the email from November 2020, Schiffâs office sought feedback from Twitter related to âalleged harassment from QAnon conspiracistsâ against one of the lawmakerâs staffers.
âRemove any and all content about Mr. Misko and other Committee staff from its service- to include quotes, retweets, and reactions to that content,â the email to Twitter stated.
It continued, âSuspend the many accounts, including and which have repeatedly promoted false QAnon conspiracies.â
Additionally, Schiffâs office asked Twitter to âstop the spread of future misinformation on Twitterâ about staff and âlabel and reduce the visibility of any content.â
In another tweet, Taibbi wrote, ââWE DONâT DO THISâ Even Twitter declined to honor Schiffâs request at the time. Sperry was later suspended, however.â
Read the message below:
Sperry is currently an investigative reporter for RealClearInvestigations.
He also serves as a longtime Media fellow at Stanfordâs Hoover Institution.
Sperry explained to The Daily Caller, âThe real reason Chairman Schiff lobbied to have me banned from Twitter stemmed from the fact he was angry outed his anonymous impeachment âwhistleblower.ââ
The reporter added, âHe lobbied to get me banned under the false premise of âpromot false QAnon conspiraciesâ which I have never done and challenge Schiff to produce evidence to back up his defamatory remarks to Twitter.â
The request from Schiffâs office was shared as part of the âTwitter Files.â
CBS News noted the âTwitter Filesâ are the âbrainchildâ of Twitter CEO Elon Musk, who has declared âhe wants to show âwhat really happenedâ behind the scenes regarding content moderation decisions at the social Media company before he bought it in October.â
The outlet noted the files have been released throughout December with journalists Taibbi, Bari Weiss and Michael Shellenberger doing a deep dive into the documents and discussions around Twitterâs most âhigh-profileâ decisions.
