Twitter executives “relished” and “enjoyed” the “power” that Donald Trump’s tweets conferred on the social media site, and otherwise would have cracked down on him sooner during his presidency, according to an ex-employee.

If Trump were “any other user,” he would have been banned from the site well before the US Capitol riots, the anonymous former employee of Twitter said during testimony on Tuesday to the House committee investigating the events of Jan. 6, 2021.

The ex-employee, who worked on the Twitter team that was responsible for content moderation, was called to testify about the company’s policies toward Trump in the days and weeks leading up to the riots.

“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 former employee told the panel.

A Twitter spokesperson told Insider that the company had an “ongoing, productive engagement” with the Jan. 6 committee. “We took unprecedented steps and invested significant resources to prepare for and respond to the threats that emerged during the 2020 US election,” the spokesperson said.

During his campaign and his presidency, Trump frequently used Twitter to communicate to his 88 million followers. He would announce policy moves as well as hirings and firings. Trump would also push diplomatic initiatives as well as lash out at his political adversaries.

Twitter has been accused of not acting soon enough to censor Trump in the aftermath of the November 2020 election, during which the then-president claimed that he was the true victor and that the vote count was tainted by widespread fraud.

Trump used his Twitter page to sow doubt in the election results as well as to rally his supporters to demonstrate in state capitals and Washington, DC — the site of the infamous Jan. 6, 2021 rally in which the then-president spoke.

Twitter permanently banned Trump in the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 6 riots, which the then-president was accused of inciting. Other social media sites also removed Trump from their platforms.

The former employee told lawmakers on the Jan. 6 panel that Twitter considered taking a harder line against Trump after the former president said during a debate with Joe Biden that the Proud Boys should “stand back and stand by.”

“My concern was that the former president, for seemingly the first time, was speaking directly to extremist organizations and giving them directives,” the former employee said.

“We had not seen that sort of direct communication before, and that concerned me,” the former employee said.

Twitter executives ultimately decided against imposing any limitations on Trump.

In December 2020, weeks before the riots, Trump tweeted: “Big protest in DC on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”

Lawmakers have claimed that the tweet was interpreted as a rallying cry by Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol in a bid to derail certification of Biden’s victory.