DeSantis, seriously--says Congress should target Apple for threatening to de-platform Musk's Twitter, now they don't censor conservatives so much

[Apollonian]

DeSantis: Congress Should Target Apple Over Alleged Threats To Block Twitter​

BY TYLER DURDEN
TUESDAY, NOV 29, 2022 - 08:25 PM
Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

Link: https://www.zerohedge.com/political...rget-apple-over-alleged-threats-block-twitter

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Republicans this week said that Apple’s alleged threat to remove Twitter from its App Store warrants congressional investigation.

“That would be a huge, huge mistake, and it would be a really raw exercise of monopolistic power that I think would merit a response from the United States Congress,” DeSantis told an audience in Duval County, Florida, on Tuesday.

The “old regime” at Twitter attempted to “suffocate the dissent” in regards to COVID-19 reporting, DeSantis said, adding that Apple is acting as a “vassal of the CCP [Chinese Communist Party]” while using “corporate power in the United States … to suffocate Americans.”
The governor appeared to have been referring to reports that Apple blocked some features of its popular AirDrop service for only Chinese users prior to widespread protests against the regime’s “zero COVID” policies.

The Florida governor was referring to a claim from new Twitter owner Elon Musk’s posts on Monday that Apple, considered the world’s most valuable company, threatened to remove the Twitter app from its App Store. Apple has not yet issued a public comment on the matter, and The Epoch Times has contacted the firm for comment.

“Apple has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter. Do they hate free speech in America?” Musk asked on Twitter.
“Apple has also threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store,” he posted, “but won’t tell us why.” The tech billionaire also directly asked CEO Tim Cook: “What’s going on?”

Outside of DeSantis, other Republicans said that Apple and Google have too much control over the internet via their respective app-downloading stores. Removing Twitter from both would mean that the social media app would be heavily limited in its growth and usage.
Parler, a social media platform favored by conservatives, was removed from the App Store, Google Play, and Amazon Web Services days after the Jan. 6 Capitol incident. For more than a month, the website was not accessible, and data shows that its usage significantly dropped during that time period and has never recovered.

“This is why we need to end the App Store duopoly before the end of this year. No one should have this kind of market power,” Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo) wrote.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), who co-sponsored a Senate measure targeting app stores, added that “Apple and Google currently have a stranglehold on companies and have used their leverage to bully businesses.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks at a gaming convention in Los Angeles, Calif., on June 13, 2019. (Mike Blake/Reuters)
In the first quarter of 2022, Apple was the top advertiser on Twitter, spending $48 million and accounting for more than 4 percent of total revenue for the period, the Washington Post reported, citing an internal Twitter document.
Cook, Apple’s CEO, has not yet weighed in on Musk’s comments. When asked about possibly removing Twitter from the App Store in an interview on Nov. 15, he replied: “They say that they are going to continue to moderate and so … I count on them to do that.”

Read more here... [see https://www.theepochtimes.com/desan...tml?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=ZeroHedge]

 

[Apollonian]

Here's DeSantis himself speaking on the topic of Apple monopoly to eliminate freedom of speech and Musk's Twitter platform

 

[Apollonian]

Musk: Twitter Has “Interfered In Elections”​

by ZeroHedge
November 30th 2022, 12:07 pm

Link: https://www.infowars.com/posts/musk-twitter-has-interfered-in-elections/

Musk called this an 'obvious reality'

Twitter owner Elon Musk on Wednesday confirmed what everyone with two functioning brain cells and intellectual honesty already knew; the social media giant has “interfered in elections.”

In a discussion over a Reuters article in which the company’s former head of trust and safety says Twitter is ‘not safer’ under Musk, user @EvaFoxU posted: “Twitter has shown itself to be not safe for the past 10 years and has lost users’ trust. The past team of “trust and safety” is a disgrace, so it doesn’t have any right to judge what is being done now,” adding “They had a chance, but they sold their souls to a corporation.”


To which Musk replied, “Exactly. The obvious reality, as long-time users know, is that Twitter has failed in trust & safety for a very long time and has interfered in elections.”

Musk then said that “Twitter 2.0 will be far more effective, transparent and even-handed.”

Twitter has shown itself to be not safe for the past 10 years and has lost users’ trust. The past team of "trust and safety” is a disgrace, so it doesn’t have any right to judge what is being done now. They had a chance, but they sold their souls to a corporation.
— Ξva Fox Claudius Nero’s Legion (@EvaFoxU) November 30, 2022

Exactly. The obvious reality, as long-time users know, is that Twitter has failed in trust & safety for a very long time and has interfered in elections.

Twitter 2.0 will be far more effective, transparent and even-handed.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 30, 2022

Musk’s comments come days after he agreed with formerly banned news personality Alex Lorusso that releasing Twitter’s internal discussions about the decision to censor the Hunter Biden laptop story right before the 2020 US election is “necessary to restore public trust.”

This is necessary to restore public trust
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 24, 2022

As we noted last week, the Post had its Twitter account locked in October 2020 for reporting on the now-confirmed-to-be-real “laptop from hell,” which contains unprosecuted evidence of foreign influence peddling through then-Vice President Joe Biden – including a meeting between Joe and an executive of Ukrainian gas giant Burisma, in 2015.

The laptop contained caches of emails detailing business dealings with Burisma and state-owned CEFC China Energy Co, from which his firms received $4.8 million in wire transfer payments from its founder, Ye Jianming, according to a Senate report. -Daily Caller

Twitter had restricted any user from sharing links of the Post‘s coverage, both publicly or via direct message – while the social media giant also locked out former White House spox Kayleigh McEnany’s personal account, as well as former President Trump’s campaign account, for sharing the link.

In the ensuing years, the authenticity of the laptop has been confirmed by both the Washington Post and the New York Times, while CBS News authenticated the laptop on Monday.

‘Incredibly Inappropriate’​

As the Epoch Times noted on Tuesday;

Musk in April spoke out in opposition to Twitter’s decision to temporarily suspend New York Post’s Twitter account.

“Suspending the Twitter account of a major news organization for publishing a truthful story was obviously incredibly inappropriate,” Musk said in April, responding to a post about the Hunter Biden laptop story.

Musk, who took over Twitter in late October, has vowed to make the platform into a politically unbiased bastion of free speech.

He said in an open letter following his acquisition of Twitter that he bought it because “it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence.”

“There is currently great danger that social media will splinter into far right wing and far left-wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society,” Musk added.

Indeed:

MEDIA 2022: Hunter Biden's laptop is real.
MEDIA 2020: RUSSIAN DISINFORMATION! pic.twitter.com/O66PJZNxlN
— Matt Orfalea (@0rf) November 21, 2022

 

[Apollonian]

DeSantis says what he would do as Pres.

 

[Apollonian]

Latest commentary on political situation fm Presidential candidate, Gov. of Fla., DeSantis, on FOX News

 

[Apollonian]

Reynolds Reveals Why She Endorsed DeSantis; Says Trump ‘Asked’ For Endorsement And She Said No​

Link: http://www.womensystems.com/2023/11/reynolds-reveals-why-she-endorsed.html/

[vids at site link, above]

Women System November 07, 2023

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds said during her first joint interview with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Monday that she did not pay attention to polls months out from the state’s Republican presidential caucus in January when making the decision to endorse Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for president.
Reynolds made the remarks during an NBC News interview with reporter Dasha Burns when asked why she broke with Iowa’s tradition of governors remaining neutral and not endorsing during the primaries.

“I just felt like I couldn’t sit on the sidelines any longer,” she said. “We have too much at stake. I truly believe that he is the right person to get this country back on track.”
NBC News noted that the endorsement was the “biggest endorsement of the primary” season so far and that it was a significant boost for the DeSantis campaign.
When asked why she endorsed DeSantis, who is in second place in the race, she said: “I don’t base my decision on polls. I take a look at who I believe is the right person for the right job. I believe that Ron is the right person for the right job. And I believe he’s going to win.”

Burns later asked about her relationship with former President Donald Trump as he has launched numerous attacks against her ever since the news broke that she was endorsing DeSantis and not Trump.
When asked when the last time she spoke to Trump, she said, “Probably the last time he called to ask if I would endorse him, and I said I wasn’t at this point.”
DeSantis defended Reynolds against the attacks, saying: “As somebody who is a leader, you should want people who are delivering big victories for their constituents, standing up for conservative values, which Kim has done.”
“And it’s almost like with Donald Trump, if you don’t kiss the ring, you can be the best Governor ever and he’ll trash you,” DeSantis said. “You can be a terrible, corrupt politician. But if you kiss his ring, then all of a sudden he’ll praise you.”

 

[Apollonian]

DeSantis comments on Maine Sec. of State removing Trump fm primary ballot

 

[Apollonian]

Psycho Maine Secretary of State Says No Ballots will be Printed Until Supreme Court Rules on Trump Eligibility – Suggests There Won’t be Enough Time to Put Him on Ballot (VIDEO)​

By Cristina Laila Dec. 29, 2023 3:40 pm

Link: https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/20...y-state-says-no-ballots-will/?utm_source=rss/

[vid at site link, above]

Maine’s psychotic Democrat Secretary of State Shenna Bellows unilaterally barred Trump from the 2024 ballot because she decided the former president is an insurrectionist.
Bellows issued the order after the Colorado Supreme Court disqualified Trump from the 2024 ballot.
The legal theories are based on Section 3 of the US Constitution’s 14th Amendment which states public officials who have “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against” the US may be disqualified from public office.

Trump has not been charged with engaging in insurrection or rebellion against the United States.

Bellows appeared on Regime friendly outlets like MSNBC and CNN after she unilaterally barred Trump from the ballot.
Shenna Bellows told CNN that she suspended the effect of her decision to disqualify Trump from the ballot until the Supreme Court can act. She also suggested there may not be enough time to put Trump on the ballot.
“We’re looking at a very tight time frame,” Bellows said.

CNN host: We are waiting to see if the Supreme Court will, in fact, take up this Colorado case. I know you mentioned the Colorado case in your decision. When you look at where things stand, there is a question. Our own senior legal analyst bringing this up, he doesn’t believe that if the Supreme Court takes this up that they will in fact rule on what engaging in an insurrection means, whether there needs to be criminality with it, if they do not, are you concerned about the fallout?
Shenna Bellows: I will always implement what the court decides, and this type of proceeding is not unusual. As part of my duties in Maine, under Maine election law in 2022, for example, I held a similar hearing on the qualifications of a district attorney candidate, found him unqualified. That was appealed. The court upheld my ruling. I mentioned Mr. Chris Christie just last week, a superior court finding that I had made the right decision in barring him from the ballot under main law. But I will always uphold what the court does, and it’s part of the job of being secretary of state. Should the US Supreme Court rule that Mr. Trump be on the ballot, I will in fact place him on the ballot. It’s part of why I suspended the effect of my decision until the courts can act. So no ballots are being printed until that Superior Court decision or Supreme Court decision might come down. Although we’re looking at a very tight time frame.