DeSantis Calls Out Apple For Threatening to ‘Nuke’ Twitter From its App Store; Says it Merits a Response From Congress

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Tuesday urged Congress to look into Apple Inc.’s alleged threat to remove Twitter from its App store, calling it a “raw exercise of monopolistic power.”

“Chief Twit” Elon Musk first revealed that Apple had made the threat on Twitter, Monday, noting that the company had not given any reason for the hostile move.

As soon as Musk took over the platform in late October and began enacting free speech policies, a slew of companies, including Apple, cancelled their advertisements in protest. The billionaire has taken the woke exodus in stride, but appeared to be concerned about Apple’s threat on Monday, because the removal of Twitter from iPhone’s app store would cripple the platform, as it did when Big tech took the same punitive actions against Parler.

In response to Big tech’s hostility toward free speech, Musk has expressed a willingness to do whatever it takes to save the platform.

Conservative podcaster Liz Wheeler noted in a tweet last week that if Apple and Google removed Twitter from their app stores, Musk could respond by producing his own smartphone. “Half the country would happily ditch the biased, snooping iPhone & Android,” Wheeler wrote. “The man builds rockets to Mars, a silly little smartphone should be easy, right?”

In response, Musk said he might be forced to do just that. “I certainly hope it does not come to that, but, yes, if there is no other choice, I will make an alternative phone,” he tweeted back.

DeSantis on Tuesday characterized Apple’s alleged threat to ruin Twitter as an attack on free speech, during a press conference on Florida’s infrastructure improvements at Cecil Airport in Jacksonville.

“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,” he said.

Last week, Musk posted a poll asking Twitter users if he should grant amnesty to all of the accounts that had been suspended by Twitter. Respondents overwhelmingly voted to restore the accounts, and Musk said in a subsequent tweet that the amnesties would begin this week.

Musk also revealed that Twitter enforced its rules almost exclusively against conservatives, displaying bias that was blatant and undeniable.

“The more I learn, the worse it gets,” he tweeted following the poll. “The world should know the truth of what has been happening at Twitter. Transparency will earn the trust of the people.”

In a subsequent Tweet, he wrote: “It is objectively the case that “conservative” political candidates were more negatively affected than “progressive” candidates. Anyone using Twitter knows this. Question is simply one of...

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