The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of RedState.com.

Let’s face it, most of us have known for a long time that Twitter was doing everything in its power to silence conservative voices. In the early days of the platform, leftist activists were vocal about their campaigns to shut down right-leaning accounts, often bragging openly about their success in convincing the Twitter brain trust to engage in censorship. I first joined Twitter in August of 2008 and it was alarmingly easy back then for the left to silence its political opponents by flagging a post or reporting an account with which they disagreed. Conservatives would then band together and demand Twitter un-ban accounts that were silenced because some soy boy in his mom’s basement got his feelings hurt. It was the early days of doxxing and SWATing — and, yikes, have we come a long way, baby.

Back then, it was leftist Twitter users doing what leftist Twitter users do: rant, cry and call for free speech to be suppressed. Now, however, in the Age of Elon, we know that things progressed from woke crybabies having Twitter tantrums to Twitter’s leadership itself — and its merry band of censorious hipster employees — taking the lead in silencing Republicans and conservatives.

As RedState’s Jeff Charles reported, journalist Bari Weiss unleashed “Twitter Files Part II” last night, bringing receipts that confirmed the previous Twitter regime engaged in shadow banning and other forms of censorship against conservatives. It was political and it was deliberate, with Dan Bongino and Charlie Kirk specifically named as targets. And the marching orders came from the very top of Twitter, with Weiss noting of the free suppressing practices:

Twitter denied that it does such things. In 2018, Twitter’s Vijaya Gadde (then Head of Legal Policy and Trust) and Kayvon Beykpour (Head of Product) said: “We do not shadow ban.” They added: “And we certainly don’t shadow ban based on political viewpoints or ideology.”

Turns out, they certainly did.

We already knew Vijaya Gadde was a bad actor, but where was Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey during all of this? Right smack dab in the middle of it. Weiss explained his involvement, tweeting “There existed a level beyond official ticketing, beyond the rank-and-file moderators following the company’s policy on paper. That is the ‘Site Integrity Policy, Policy Escalation Support,’ known as ‘SIP-PES.'” Guess who was a member of SIP-PES? You guessed it!

14. This secret group included Head of Legal, Policy, and Trust (Vijaya Gadde), the Global Head of Trust & Safety (Yoel Roth), subsequent CEOs Jack Dorsey and Parag Agrawal, and others.

— Bari Weiss (@bariweiss) December 9, 2022

There he is! The censorship came right from the top. There’s just one thing: Jack Dorsey, under oath, told Congress back in 2018 that his platform didn’t engage in the shadow banning of conservatives or Republicans.

WATCH:

During his testimony before Congress in September 2018, then-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was asked whether Twitter was "shadowbanning prominent Republicans."

"No," Dorsey responded. #TwitterFiles2 pic.twitter.com/1w2uvQaRtG

— Kyle Morris (@RealKyleMorris) December 9, 2022

Here’s the exchange between Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA) and Dorsey:

Doyle: “I want to read a few quotes about Twitter’s practices and I just want you to tell me if they’re true or not. Social media is being rigged to censor conservatives. Is that true of Twitter?”

Dorsey: “No.”

Doyle: “Are you censoring people?”

Dorsey: “No.”

Doyle: “Twitter’s shadow-banning prominent Republicans… is that true?”

Dorsey: “No.”

Jack Dorsey certainly finds himself in a pickle right now, especially with Republicans taking over the House next month with a long list of investigations to conduct and scores to settle. In case you were wondering, lying to Congress is actually a very serious offense:

Perjury and lying to the federal government are both crimes that could land a person in some serious legal trouble. If convicted of either crime, a person could be looking at up to five years in prison. This means that if a person is found to have lied during a congressional hearing or investigation, or simply lied to an FBI or other federal agent, actual jail time could result.

Whether Republicans will go after Big Tech in general, and Jack Dorsey in particular, remains to be seen. Elon Musk pulling back the curtain on the agendas behind social media is a game changer, even though the bought-and-paid-for establishment media refuses to acknowledge that fact. Going into the 2024 election cycle, the next “most important election of our lifetime,” conservatives have the upper hand and the moral high ground. The left has demonstrably waged a war on free speech and interfered in elections, and the GOP would do well to follow Musk’s lead and courageously and continuously out the left and their traitorous ways.