Ex-Twitter employee: Trump supporters 'ready, willing and able to take up arms' on Jan. 6
A former Twitter employee who testified Tuesday before the January 6 committee said tweets from former President Donald Trump incited violence at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th.
The anonymous ex-Twitter worker said a tweet from Trump on Dec. 19 was "essentially sticking a flag in D.C. on January 6th" for his supporters to join a rally with him.
“Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there. Will be wild,” Trump's tweet said. The Twitter employee testified that the reactions were clear and that many of his supporters "were ready, willing and able to take up arms," behind Trump.
The testimony comes as the committee hearing mostly focused Tuesday on the role of extremist groups during the Capitol riot that left five dead and led to more than 700 arrests as well as Trump's role.
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The former staffer worked on Twitter’s platform and content moderation policies between 2020 and 2021. Their voice was obscured to protect their identity, said Rep. Jamie Raskin, (D-Md).
During the hearing, committee member Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla. said there were "serious concerns" at Twitter about the possibility of anticipated violence. She then played the audio testimony of the former Twitter worker detailing colleagues' frustration.
The ex-employee said Twitter staffers were on "pins and needles."
"I believe I sent a Slack message to someone that said something along the lines of, 'When people are shooting each other tomorrow, I will try and rest in the knowledge that we tried,'" the ex-Twitter employee testified.
"Because, again, for months, I had been begging and anticipating and attempting to raise the reality that, if we made no intervention into what I saw occurring, people were going to die," the ex-Twitter employee continued. "And on January 5th, I realized no intervention was coming.
"And even as hard as I had tried to create one or implement one, there was nothing, and we were at the whims and the mercy of a violent crowd that was locked and loaded," the ex-employee added.
Concerned after 'Stand back and stand by' comment
The ex-Twitter employee also testified that the social media giant was leery of Trump as when Trump urged members of the far-right extremist group the Proud Boys, to "stand back and stand by" during a heated presidential debate with Democratic nominee Joe Biden on Sept. 29, 2020.
The employee was worried "for seemingly the first time, (Trump) was speaking directly to extremist organizations and giving them directives. We had not seen that sort of direct communication before, and that concerned me."
The employee also said that Twitter didn't ban Trump despite what he said. Previously, Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey had said numerous times that having Turmp's at-times controversial and dangerous rhetoric via a direct line on the platform is "interesting and fascinating," as well as "complicated."
On Tuesday, the ex-employee testified that if Trump were any other Twitter user, he would have been "permanently suspended" a long time ago.
"I believe 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 within the social media ecosystem," the employee said.
Trump was banned from Twitter two days after the deadly riot due to "the risk of further incitement of violence. The decision still remains hotly debated as a presumed Twitter buyer, billionaire Elon Musk, said in May that he would let Trump back on Twitter.
However, on Tuesday, three days after being ripped by Trump at a campaign rally in Alaska, Musk tweeted that "it's time for Trump to hang up his hat & sail into the sunset."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Former Twitter staffer testifies that Trump incited violence on Jan. 6
