‘Raw Exercise of Monopolistic Power’: DeSantis Warns Apple Removing Twitter from App Store Could ‘Merit a Response’ from Congress
Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday said that if Apple will hamper protests in China on the one hand while retaliating against Elon Musk on the other, that would be an exercise of monopolistic power worthy of government scrutiny.
Musk has claimed that Apple is considering removing Twitter from the App Store, tagging the company’s CEO Tim Cook in a tweet thread that noted the company already pulled advertising.
Monopoly-busting is generally a bipartisan issue with a long tradition in the United States among both Republicans and Democrats. Opposition to the “raw exercise” of monopolistic power is neither a contradiction of the American free market system nor a hypocritical view for a Republican, but instead enjoys broad populist appeal. It is on that ground that Florida’s conservative Republican governor — who makes many appeals to populism — made his case for Twitter and against Apple when delivering remarks in Jacksonville, Florida on Tuesday.
Speaking ahead of an announcement, DeSantis brought up China’s zero-covid policy which was recently criticized by Dr. Anthony Fauci.
The governor segued from the criticism of China to Apple, citing reports that Apple is “not allowing the protesters to use this AirDrop function where [protesters in China] are trying to communicate.”
“That obviously is providing aid and comfort to the CCP,” he said of the Apple decision.
DeSantis then compared reports on that decision against Musk’s assertion that Apple could remove the app from their App Store.
“So you see that report and that’s very concerning, and then when you also hear reports that Apple is threatening to remove Twitter from the App Store because Elon Musk is actually opening it up for free speech and is restoring a lot of accounts that were unfairly and illegitimately suspended for putting out accurate information about covid,” said DeSantis.
He said that many of the accounts being reinstated were banned under the covid policy that Twitter quietly removed after Musk’s takeover, saying that it was the “old regime” trying to ‘stifle dissent.”
“Elon Musk knows that’s not a winning formula, and so he’s providing free speech,” said DeSantis. “And so if Apple responds to that by nuking them from the App Store, you know, I think that that would be a huge, huge mistake.”
He then made the appeal to trustbusting.
“It would be a really raw exercise of monopolistic power that I think would merit a response from the United States Congress,” DeSantis said.
The Biden administration’s Department of Justice is already weighing an antitrust suit against Apple for various such uses of monopolistic power.
DeSantis wrapped up by once again comparing the tech giant’s behavior with the CCP against their actions toward an American company.
“So, don’t be a vassal of the CCP on one hand, and then use your corporate power in the United States on the other to suffocate Americans and try to suppress their right to express themselves,” he said.
Watch the clip above, via First Coast News.
