“Back in 2009, when Iranians were out in the streets protesting, Twitter had a 90-minute upgrade scheduled, which would have shut it down right in the middle of the day in Iran. So my State Department asked Twitter to push it back. And they said, okay.”
On with Kara Swisher · Tech Strategy & Big Tech · November 2026
Context
Kara Swisher asked whether Clinton, as Secretary of State, ever dealt with a private tech company's decision affecting a conflict. She gave this example as a contrast with the Starlink shutoff in Ukraine, where the company acted alone.
Transcript
…that Trump has slow walk the Patriot air defense missile systems that the Ukrainians need to be able to shoot those incoming missiles out of the air, but not to even give people warning because we didn't know that they were headed toward civilian targets is just outrageous. It's cruel. Did that
ever happen to you in any of your time as Secretary of State?
Back in 2009, when Iranians were out in the streets protesting, Twitter had a 90-minute upgrade scheduled, which would have shut it down right in the middle of the day in Iran. So my State Department asked Twitter to push it back. And they said, okay. That's the one example that pops into my head. The
government was involved in that. Our government. Yeah. It's not clear who pulled the trigger on the Ukraine thing. They kept going back and forth. Trump said it wasn't him. They weren't blaming
each other. Hagsett said it wasn't him. Trump said, well, maybe somebody called me, but I don't remember. I'm not sure. Elon said I wouldn't have done it without them. We need to find out. And I think, if I'm not mistaken, Kara, that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has sent letters already…
then Doge, of course. It was a bad week for Elon Musk. Anyway, we'll go on a quick break and we come back. Let's talk about what the Dems need to do on day one, as you were suggesting.
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