Governor DeSantis blasted Apple on Tuesday for threatening to remove Twitter from its app store and for interrupting the ability of Chinese citizens to use iPhones to organize protests against the CCP’s “zero-Covid” regime.
“Apple is threatening to remove Twitter from the App Store because Elon Musk is actually opening it up for free speech and restoring a lot of accounts that were unfairly and illegitimately suspended for putting out accurate information about Covid,” DeSantis said at a press conference in Duval County.
The overwhelmingly popular Florida governor, reelected earlier this month in a landslide, suggested that congressional action would be warranted if Apple took the dramatic step of removing Twitter from its app store in retaliation against CEO Elon Musk’s decision to reinstate banned accounts. Musk accused the tech giant of threatening the move in a Monday tweet.
“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,” he said.
“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.”@GovRonDeSantis slams Apple for reportedly patching out AirDrop in China and threatening Twitter and @elonmusk. pic.twitter.com/FmdF2clUvM
— National Review (@NRO) November 29, 2022
Musk recently granted account access back to a number of major right-wing provocateurs and organizations, including former president Trump, Jordan Peterson, and satire site the Babylon Bee.
DeSantis praised Musk for stewarding Twitter toward open debate that doesn’t necessarily favor left-wing users.
“So many of these things, the experts were wrong at,” the governor said of the Covid-19 consensus that obtained throughout the pandemic. “And you had people calling that out on Twitter. And the old regime’s response was to suffocate the dissent. And Elon Musk knows that’s not a winning formula.”
DeSantis on Tuesday also condemned Apple’s interference in the recent street demonstrations challenging President Xi Jingping’s authoritarian rule and ongoing “zero-Covid” policy. The governor cited reports that “Apple is not allowing the protesters to use this Air Drop function” to communicate.
“That is obviously providing aid and comfort to the CCP,” he said.
Over the weekend, protests erupted across in opposition to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership amidst the ongoing regime-imposed Covid-19 lockdowns.
The unrest was triggered after an apartment fire in Urumqi, the capital of the far western region of Xinjiang, killed ten people and injured nine late last week. The incident triggered public outrage, as it was believed that the mobility restrictions in the area either trapped the residents or slowed the dispatch of emergency services. Police attempted to crack down on the protests, forcibly clearing the crowds and arresting some participants.
“This zero-Covid policy is draconian, it violates people’s liberties, and it is completely unscientific. And the people of China are right to be able to speak out and protest against what the Chinese Communist Party is doing,” DeSantis said at the briefing.
The Chinese Communist Party’s “Zero COVID” policy is draconian, unscientific, and represents a gross violation of individual rights. The Chinese people are right to protest the maniacal impulse to exercise total control of the population which is the hallmark of the CCP regime. pic.twitter.com/pTMzG92u0U
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) November 29, 2022
A GOP favorite for 2024 nomination, DeSantis accused the CCP of a “maniacal desire to exert total control over its population.” China’s zero-Covid policy, which seeks to snuff out the virus through invasive testing and movement restrictions, is a “pretext for them to do what they want to do anyways,” DeSantis added.
“We need these draconian Covid policies to go to the ash heap of history where they belong,” he declared.