HITC: Who Is Ms. Navaroli? Twitter Whistleblower Spotlights Chrissy Teigen Trump Tweet

This article features Government Accountability Project’s Of Counsel, David Seide, and was originally published here.

Ms Navaroli, a Twitter ‘whistleblower’, takes center stage at a Congress hearing on the Hunter Biden laptop hearing.

Navaroli appeared at Congress on Wednesday, February 8 alongside former Twitter executives and employees. They were there to testify before the House oversight committee over the company’s handling of the Biden laptop story suppression. Twitter temporarily limited New York Post articles in 2020 over contents of the abandoned laptop of President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, The Guardian reports.

So, who is Ms Navaroli and what was her role at Twitter? Let’s take a look at how her role came into play at Wednesday’s hearing.

WHO IS MS NAVAROLI?

Anika Collier Navaroli was formerly a senior expert on Twitter’s US safety policy team. She held this role at the time of the January 6 Capitol attacks.

Navaroli graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. She later obtained a master’s from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism before pursuing her JD at the University of North Carolina School of Law.

Areas of her research focus on laws governing technology and First Amendment jurisprudence, as well as freelance journalism industry. This made her a suitable choice to oversee the safety policy of such a social media giant as Twitter.

NAVAROLI BROUGHT THE CHRISSY TEIGEN TWEETS TO CONGRESS

Attention has focused on Ms Navaroli during the hearing as she brought an infamous tweet by Chrissy Teigen back into the spotlight.

During Wednesday’s hearing, Navaroli told Rep Gerry Connolly (D-VA.) that she understood the White House reached out to Twitter after Chrissy Teigen directed some rather eyebrow-raising words towards former president Donald Trump. They allegedly requested that Twitter remove the post.

“I do remember hearing that we had received a request from the White House to make sure that we evaluated this tweet and that they wanted it to come down because it was a derogatory statement directed towards the president,” Navaroli testified.

Chrissy Teigen, a model who is best known as the wife of singer John Legend, had called Trump a “p**** a** b****” on Twitter in September 2019. This was in response to Trump calling her Legend’s “filthy-mouthed wife.”

ANIKA COLLIER NAVAROLI WAS HONORED FOR BEING A TWITTER WHISTLEBLOWER

Last year, Navaroli made headlines as one of the two Twitter whistleblowers to give evidence to the US House Committee investigating the January 6 attacks on the US Capitol.

She went public as one of the whistleblowers in September 2022, giving an interview with Washington Post reporter Drew Harwell. Shortly after, Navaroli was awarded the Ridenhour Prize for Truth-Telling for her courage to testify on the attacks. This prize is awarded to a citizen, corporate or government, journalist, or organization, that brings a critical issue of social importance to the public.

After Wednesday’s hearing, Government Accountability Project co-counsel David Z Seide described Anika Collier Navaroli as a “courageous whistleblower.” Seide added: “[Navaroli] has repeatedly sounded alarms about mismanagement at Twitter, which has produced dire consequences.”