The terror of whistleblowing

Full story: Jan. 6 Twitter witness: Failure to curb Trump spurred ‘terrifying’ choice

I broke the story identifying the former Twitter official who testified about the fateful months inside the company before a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Anika Collier Navaroli had told the House committee investigating the insurrection that “Twitter relished in the knowledge that they were also the favorite and most-used service of the former president and enjoyed having that sort of power."

In our interview, she talked about her fear of speaking out, and why she did so anyway:

“Regulating speech is hard, and we need to come in with more nuanced ideas and proposals. There’s got to be a balance of free expression and safety,” she said. “But we also have to ask: Whose speech are we protecting at the expense of whose safety? And whose safety are we protecting at the expense of whose speech?” ...

“My fear within the American context is that we have seen our last peaceful transition of power,” Navaroli said. But “the same playbook,” she added, is being used around the world, “teeing up the idea that if an election is not in someone’s favor, it’s been rigged. Without intervention we really are on this path to catastrophe.”

Update

• January 2023: What the Jan. 6 probe found out about social media, but didn’t report
• June 2023: New video undercuts claim Twitter censored pro-Trump views before Jan. 6

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