Ron DeSantis Vows to Punish Twitter for Refusing Elon Musk

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is upset at Twitter’s try and block Elon Musk’s $43 billion tried hostile takeover of the corporate.

DeSantis, no stranger to publicly menacing tech firms, is threatening to make use of his energy as governor to inflict punishment. Is he positive how he’ll do it? He isn’t. In a press conference on Tuesday, the governor stated the funding managers in control of Florida’s pension funds had been wanting into methods the state might maintain Twitter accountable for “breaching their fiduciary duty” by way of the shares of Twitter that already comprise the funds.

“They rejected [Musk’s takeover attempt] because they know they can’t control Elon Musk,” DeSantis stated. “They know that he will not accept the narrative and that their little play toy of Twitter, it would not be used to enforce orthodoxy, and to basically prop up the regime and these failed legacy media outlets. And so that’s why they did it. It was not, in my judgment, because it wasn’t a good business deal.”

Last week Twitter’s board voted unanimously to undertake a restricted period shareholder rights plan that may let shareholders purchase extra shares at a reduced price if any entity, particular person or group (like, say, Musk) accrued greater than 15% of the corporate’s shares. These ways are one instance of a agency enacting a “poison pill” that may flip an outright buyout by Musk right into a monetary catastrophe.

How precisely DeSantis would go about inflicting Florida’s wrath isn’t precisely clear. During the press convention, the Republican urged the state might have standing to take motion as a result of the state’s pension fund owns shares of Twitter. Not lacking a second to take a jab at a social media firm, DeSantis slammed Twitter’s inventory, which he described as an “injury” to the state’s pension fund.

“It hasn’t been great on returns on investment,” DeSantis stated. “It’s been pretty stagnant for many many years.”

This isn’t the primary time DeSantis has had a public bone to choose with Big Tech corporations. Last 12 months, the governor led the cost on a sweeping, first of its type anti-deplatforming laws that may try and problem fines towards firms like Twitter for eradicating public officers from their platforms. The invoice, which was seen partly as a response to Twitter’s removing of former President Donald Trump following the January 6 Capitol riot, would have fined offending platforms $25,000 a day, or $250,000 a day if the candidate had been looking for public workplace. Unsurprisingly, a federal decide issued a preliminary injunction blocking the laws months later, citing critical First Amendment considerations.

“Like prior First Amendment restrictions, this is an instance of burning the house to roast a pig,” U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle stated on the time. “Balancing the exchange of ideas among private speakers is not a legitimate governmental interest. And even aside from the actual motivation for this legislation, it is plainly content-based and subject to strict scrutiny.”