Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.) is calling on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to divest from Big Tech companies after the tech giants suspended President Donald Trump’s social media accounts and shut down the Parler platform, citing a breach in their “inciting violence” policy related to the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
After the breach, Facebook and Twitter permanently suspended President Trump’s accounts, citing a breach in their policy against violence.
Fine said that the attack on the Capital was the saddest day of his life, writing, “These terrorists defiled a sacred temple of democracy, and in my mind, there is no penalty too severe for them.”
Fine continued, “I say this because those terrorists do not define me. They do not define you. They do not define my colleagues. And they do not define conservatives.”
“I am deeply disturbed to see the country’s major technology companies use the actions of these few as a pretext to silence tens of millions of good, patriotic Americans, millions of whom live here in Florida,” Fine wrote.
The 53 district’s representative said regardless of if we agree or disagree with what the president writes, he is the president and if Big Tech can censor him, they can censor anyone. The Florida Rep. criticized the fact that world leaders from Iran and elsewhere are allowed to remain active on Twitter despite outrageous and violent statements.
“It is clear that Twitter and Facebook are engaged in one-sided viewpoint discrimination on targeting conservatives. These companies allow actual terrorists around the world to use their platforms to target America, Americans, and our allies, without as much as a peep.”
He said it’s apparent that Amazon, Apple, and Google are trying to eliminate any alternative platforms where conservatives can speak.
Parler, an alternative to Twitter promoted by many conservatives which calls itself “unbiased social media,” was kicked off the internet last week. Amazon and Google told Parler they must moderate their users and control violent posts.
The Republican said he will also be introducing legislation that would forbid any state or local government from doing business with these companies, including no advertising with Facebook, Twitter, or Google by the Florida government, no use of Amazon services, and no purchase of Apple products.
Prior to that, Google said, “Parler has not taken adequate measures to address the proliferation of these threats to people’s safety,” the company said in a statement. “We have suspended Parler from the App Store until they resolve these issues.”
In a letter sent to Parler’s developers, Apple wrote, “Parler has not upheld its commitment to moderate and remove harmful or dangerous content encouraging violence and illegal activity, and is not in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines.”
Fine called the moves by the tech giants censorship. Concluding his letter to the governor by saying, “They may get to decide who they do business with. So, do we.”
