Anika Collier Navaroli is an American researcher, writer, and lawyer who is a senior fellow at the

Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is located in Pulitzer Hall on the university's Morningside Heights campus in New York City. Founded in 1912 by Joseph Pulitzer, Columbia Journalism School is one of the oldest journalism sch ...

. Formerly, she worked on the safety policy team at

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

. She is known for coming forward as a

whistleblower Whistleblowing (also whistle-blowing or whistle blowing) is the activity of a person, often an employee, revealing information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe, unethical or ...

to the

United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack The United States House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (commonly referred to as the January 6th Committee) was a Select or special committee (United States Congress), select committee of the ...

about platform moderation at Twitter during the

presidency of Donald Trump Presidency of Donald Trump may refer to: * First presidency of Donald Trump, the United States presidential administration from 2017 to 2021 * Second presidency of Donald Trump, the United States presidential administration since 2025 See also * ...

Early life and education

Anika Collier Navaroli grew up in Florida. Navaroli earned a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

from the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...

, then earned a

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

from

University of North Carolina School of Law The University of North Carolina School of Law (branded as Carolina Law) is the law school of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Established in 1845, it is one of the oldest law schools in the United States and is the oldest law sch ...

in 2012. She earned a

Master of Science A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medici ...

in journalism from

, where she wrote a thesis on

constitutional law Constitutional law is a body of law which defines the role, powers, and structure of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the parliament or legislature, and the judiciary; as well as the basic rights of citizens and, in ...

and social media titled "The Revolution Will Be Tweeted".

Career

After earning her master's degree, Navaroli worked in communications and marketing at law firms. Later, she joined the civil rights non-profit

Color of Change Color of Change is a progressive nonprofit civil rights advocacy organization in the United States. It was formed in 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in order to use online resources to strengthen the political voice of African Americ ...

. In 2019, Navaroli joined Twitter's safety policy team to help work on

content moderation On websites that allow users to create content, content moderation is the process of detecting contributions that are irrelevant, obscene, illegal, harmful, or insulting. The purpose of content moderation is to remove or apply a warning label to ...

and conduct policies. In 2020, she began to grow concerned about rhetoric by Donald Trump against

Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...

, at the time his opponent in the

presidential election A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President. Elections by country Albania The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public. Chile The p ...

, which she believed was contributing to a broader increase in hate speech and incitement to violence on the platform. She began to push internally for stronger policies after Trump directed the

far-right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...

Proud Boys The Proud Boys is an American far-right politics, far-right, Neo-fascism, neo-fascist militant organization that promotes and engages in political violence.Far-right: * * Fascist: * * * * * Men only: * * * Political violence and militancy: ...

during a September 2020 presidential debate to " stand back and stand by". She said that she and her team advocated for stricter and more precise policies around

dog whistles A dog whistle (also known as silent whistle or Galton's whistle) is a type of whistle that emits sound in the ultrasonic range, which humans cannot hear but some other animals can, including dogs and domestic cats, and is used in their training. ...

, but that they were rebuffed by executives who were pleased that Trump favored Twitter over other social media networks. She also said that Twitter had broken its own rules in declining to label or remove Trump's tweets. On the night of January 5, 2021, the eve of the

January 6 United States Capitol attack On January 6, 2021, the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., was attacked by a mob of supporters of Donald Trump, President Donald Trump in an attempted self-coup,Multiple sources: * * * * * * * * * * * * * two months afte ...

, Navaroli participated in a team meeting where they discussed their concerns over what might happen the following day, after seeing calls to violence. After the meeting, Navaroli wrote to a colleague: "When people are shooting each other in the streets tomorrow, I'm going to try and rest in the knowledge that we tried." Navaroli left Twitter in March 2021 and began working for

Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle c ...

. In July 2022, after receiving a

subpoena A subpoena (; also subpœna, supenna or subpena) or witness summons is a writ issued by a government agency, most often a court, to compel testimony by a witness or production of evidence under a penalty for failure. There are two common types of ...

, Navaroli testified before the

about Twitter's tolerance for Donald Trump's behavior on the platform. At first, she testified anonymously under the pseudonym "J. Smith", and the Committee protected her identity by using a

voice changer A voice changer (also known as voice enhancer) is a device which changes the tone or pitch of or adds distortion to the user's voice. Hardware implementations The earliest voice changers were electronic devices usually used over the telephone for t ...

on portions of her audio testimony that were made public. In September 2022 she revealed her identity and testified again. Afterwards, she began to receive racist and sexist messages, as well as

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault involving sexual intercourse, or other forms of sexual penetration, carried out against a person without consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or against a person ...

and

death threat A death threat is a threat, often made anonymously, by one person or a group of people to kill another person or group of people. These threats are often designed to intimidate victims in order to manipulate their behaviour, in which case a d ...

s. In February 2023, she testified again about Twitter's internal policies in a hearing by the

United States House Committee on Oversight and Accountability The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is the main investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives. The committee's broad jurisdiction and legislative authority make it one of the most influential and powerful pan ...

on the

Hunter Biden laptop controversy In October 2020, a controversy arose involving a laptop that belonged to Hunter Biden. The owner of a Delaware computer shop, John Paul Mac Isaac, said that the laptop had been left by a man who identified himself as Hunter Biden. Mac Isaac also ...

. Navaroli later said she believed the hearings were a "real missed opportunity", and that the committee had not taken sufficient action with respect to social media companies' role in the January 6 attack. " ocial media companies'role or their responsibility within that day and the events of that day, and the violence that occurred, has not been fully laid out" in the committee's report, she said. Navaroli later became a fellow at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

, where she studied online moderation of

hate speech Hate speech is a term with varied meaning and has no single, consistent definition. It is defined by the ''Cambridge Dictionary'' as "public speech that expresses hate or encourages violence towards a person or group based on something such as ...

and the impact on employees tasked with performing such moderation. In August 2023, she joined the

as a senior fellow.

Recognition

Navaroli was awarded the Ridenhour Truth-Telling Prize and the Columbia Journalism School's Alumni Courage Award for her Congressional testimony. Whistleblower protection group

The Signals Network The Signals Network (TSN) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 2017 by a coalition of journalists, lawyers, whistleblowers, technology entrepreneurs, and transparency activists. The organization supports whistleblowers who have sha ...

awarded her the Unicorn Fund.

Personal life

, Navaroli was living in California. She is

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are non-heterosexual or non- cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against LGBTQ people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Navaroli, Anika Collier 21st-century African-American academics 21st-century African-American lawyers 21st-century African-American women writers 21st-century African-American writers 21st-century American academics 21st-century American lawyers 21st-century American LGBTQ people 21st-century American women academics 21st-century American women lawyers 21st-century American women writers 21st-century American writers Academics from California Academics from Florida African-American legal scholars American legal scholars American LGBTQ lawyers American queer women American queer writers American whistleblowers American women legal scholars California lawyers Columbia University fellows Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism alumni Florida lawyers Living people Place of birth missing (living people) Scholars of constitutional law Twitch (service) people Twitter, Inc. people University of Florida alumni University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni Writers from California Writers from Florida Year of birth missing (living people) LGBTQ people from Florida Stanford University DCSL practitioner fellows