Ron DeSantis laments 'coordinated assault' against Parler

Even more “chilling” than Twitter removing President Donald 
Trump‘s account, Gov. Ron DeSantis says, is tech companies 
conspiring against Parler.

Speaking Thursday at a keynote luncheon at a legislative policy 
conference in Austin, Texas, the Governor addressed Google, 
Apple and Amazon’s recent moves to restrict Parler after the 
U.S. Capitol riot. The social media platform, used primarily by 
conservatives, touts itself as a censorship-free alternative to 
Twitter.

“What really bothered me was how they decapitated this company, 
Parler,” DeSantis said. “You always said hey, it’s a market, you 
don’t like Twitter, create your own competitor. Well, they did 
that.”

After the riot, Twitter began removing some conservative 
accounts, including the President’s. Users flocked to Parler as 
a safe haven because Twitter was siding with President-elect Joe 
Biden‘s administration, the Governor said.

Google yanked Parler’s smartphone app from its app store Friday 
for allowing posts that seek “to incite ongoing violence in the 
U.S.” Apple followed suit on Saturday evening after giving 
Parler 24 hours to address complaints it was being used to “plan 
and facilitate yet further illegal and dangerous activities.” 
The platform will need to address public safety issues before it 
is restored, Apple said.

Amazon struck another blow Saturday, informing Parler it would 
need to look for a new web-hosting service effective midnight 
Sunday. It reminded Parler in a letter, first reported by 
Buzzfeed, that it had informed it in the past few weeks of 98 
examples of posts “that clearly encourage and incite violence” 
and said the platform “poses a very real risk to public safety.”

“Not only did Apple drop them, not only did you have other 
things, they took them off the web server from Amazon. The 
lawyers quit. They couldn’t even do this,” he added. “This was a 
coordinated assault on a company that was trying to compete.”

The conservative think tank Texas Public Policy Foundation holds 
its Policy Orientation conference annually. Texas’ biennial 
Legislative Session began Tuesday.

DeSantis also said he was disturbed during the presidential 
election to see “credible articles” about Hunter Biden, the 
President-elect’s son, “actively suppressed.” Those actions 
affected the election, he said.

“Big Tech, they could actually suppress this information, and 
that is just simply OK?” DeSantis asked. “That is election 
interference, if you want to be honest about it, and that’s 
something that really needs to be addressed.”

In response to Facebook and Twitter’s decisions to permanently 
ban Trump, Zephyrhills Republican Sen. Danny Burgess filed 
legislation (SB 520) Monday that would require social media 
sites to provide notice to users who have been punished by the 
platform.

https://floridapolitics.com/archives/395476-ron-desantis-laments-
coordinated-assault-against-parler