{"id":1757844,"date":"2022-12-01T08:02:35","date_gmt":"2022-12-01T13:02:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1757844"},"modified":"2022-12-01T08:02:39","modified_gmt":"2022-12-01T13:02:39","slug":"a-gop-with-backbone-would-support-elon-musk-punish-apple-and-fight-for-free-speech-on-twitter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/a-gop-with-backbone-would-support-elon-musk-punish-apple-and-fight-for-free-speech-on-twitter\/","title":{"rendered":"A GOP With Backbone Would Support Elon Musk, Punish Apple, And Fight For Free Speech On Twitter"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">34<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fa-gop-with-backbone-would-support-elon-musk-punish-apple-and-fight-for-free-speech-on-twitter%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1757844&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Apple\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/elonmusk\/status\/1597300125243944961?s=20&#038;t=TVQQEZEF1l1ztJ0GgnLxMg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">threat to remove Twitter from its App store<\/a>\u00a0for the crime of being a slightly more open forum for free speech under Elon Musk has been met with a chorus of outrage and substantive threats of congressional action by Republican leaders.<\/p>\n<p>Just kidding. Republicans have barely said anything about it, and establishment Republicans have said nothing at all. With the exception of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who offered his opinion on a matter outside his purview as a governor, Apple\u2019s threat to crush Twitter has been met more or less with silence, even from members of the GOP who consider themselves conservative. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sltrib.com\/news\/politics\/2022\/08\/10\/bussin-forreal-forreal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sen. Mike Lee<\/a>, to his credit,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BasedMikeLee\/status\/1597308734489133056?s=20&#038;t=TVQQEZEF1l1ztJ0GgnLxMg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">tossed out a tweet<\/a>\u00a0saying Apple\u2019s threat makes the case for the Open Apps Markets Act. But he\u2019s the exception to the rule.) And though Apple leaders apparently smoothed over the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/elonmusk\/status\/1598090996281413638\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">misunderstanding<\/a>\u201d with Musk on Wednesday afternoon, we have all seen this pattern: Big Tech\u2019s anti-speech aggression always <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2020\/08\/19\/twitter-bans-babylon-bee-then-claims-it-was-an-innocent-mistake\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">turns out to be<\/a> a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/01\/29\/twitter-suspends-reinstates-anti-big-tech-activist-mike-davis-claiming-mistake\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">mistake<\/a>\u201d or \u201cmisunderstanding\u201d as soon as enough people notice. <\/p>\n<p>This is why I\u2019ve argued that actual conservatives, those who want to save the country and restore republic self-government,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/10\/20\/we-need-to-stop-calling-ourselves-conservatives\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">should stop calling themselves conservatives<\/a>. At this point, the label amounts to an admission of failure and defeat, and might as well be the official title of those who desire above all to be the controlled opposition for a permanent leftist regime.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">WATCH: Ron DeSantis says Apple removing <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/elonmusk?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@elonmusk<\/a>&#8216;s Twitter from app store warrants Congressional response<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That would be a huge, huge mistake, and it would be a really raw exercise of monopolistic power that I think would merit a response from the United States Congress.&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/VNjG6GuBcd\">pic.twitter.com\/VNjG6GuBcd<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Florida\u2019s Voice (@FLVoiceNews) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FLVoiceNews\/status\/1597619967062863874?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 29, 2022<\/a>  <\/p>\n<p>The Apple situation perfectly illustrates why conservatives need to swap out their old labels for new ones even as they swap out old ways of thinking about government power for a candid recognition of new realities and new imperatives.<\/p>\n<p>In this case, Apple and its CEO, Tim Cook, are squarely on the side of authoritarianism, here and abroad. They are certainly on the side of communist China, which right now is trying hard to suppress mass protests over the CCP\u2019s draconian \u201czero Covid\u201d policy. Chinese President Xi Jinping\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-11480467\/Chinese-cops-use-violence-intimidation-curb-anti-Covid-lockdown-protests.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">sent tanks into the eastern city of Xuzhou this week<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 not that you\u2019ll read much coverage about it in the corporate press. <\/p>\n<p>As it happens, China is working to quash protests and suppress free speech with Apple\u2019s help. Earlier this month, news broke that the company eliminated the AirDrop wireless file-sharing on iPhones in China after the feature was used by protesters to coordinate and share information. For their part, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., wrote a letter to Cook, branding Apple\u2019s operations in China \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/josh-hawley-blasts-apple-ceo-tim-cook-aiding-china-unconscionable-1763403\">unconscionable<\/a>\u201d and calling on the CEO to work toward halting them; Florida\u2019s Marco Rubio, who is a co-sponsor on the Open Apps Markets Act with Hawley, chimed in with an anodyne <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SenRubioPress\/status\/1591444510848192513\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">tweet<\/a>; and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tedcruz\/status\/1598007266464403456\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">echoed<\/a> what\u2019s been abundantly clear: \u201cApple is fully in bed with<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Instead of speaking out against Apple, Republicans have been disturbingly silent, which means they still have no idea what time it is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":518,"featured_media":1757847,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1757844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1757844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/518"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1757844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1757844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1757847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1757844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1757844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1757844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}