{"id":820899,"date":"2021-09-27T16:59:24","date_gmt":"2021-09-27T20:59:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=820899"},"modified":"2021-09-27T16:59:27","modified_gmt":"2021-09-27T20:59:27","slug":"desantis-directs-his-secretary-of-state-to-investigate-facebook-for-alleged-election-interference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/desantis-directs-his-secretary-of-state-to-investigate-facebook-for-alleged-election-interference\/","title":{"rendered":"DeSantis Directs His Secretary Of State To Investigate Facebook For \u2018Alleged Election Interference\u2019"},"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\">26<\/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%2Fdesantis-directs-his-secretary-of-state-to-investigate-facebook-for-alleged-election-interference%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=820899&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--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/DeSantis-1-scaled-1.jpg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.3.0\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis directed Secretary of State Laurel M. Lee to investigate Facebook for alleged election interference, saying that reports suggesting that Facebook impacted the results of state of local elections were \u201can affront to the basic principles of our republic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI hereby direct that your office immediately investigate this alleged election interference caused by Facebook through its whitelisting program \u2013 and any other previously undisclosed program within Facebook \u2013 in order to determine whether any violations of Florida\u2019s election laws took place,\u201d DeSantis said in a letter to Lee. \u201cYour office should use all legal means to uncover any such violations, including but not limited to, issuing subpoenas, conducting witness interviews, reviewing all available information and consulting with law enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>DeSantis\u2019 order follows an explosive report in The Wall Street Journal that alleged that Facebook gave preferential treatment to some of the platform\u2019s elite users.<\/p>\n<p>The portion of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/facebook-files-xcheck-zuckerberg-elite-rules-11631541353\">report<\/a> that DeSantis focused on stated:<\/p>\n<blockquote readability=\"12\">\n<p><em>While the program included most government officials, it didn\u2019t include all candidates for public office, at times effectively granting incumbents in elections an advantage over challengers. The discrepancy was most prevalent in state and local races, the documents show, and employees worried Facebook could be subject to accusations of favoritism.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s no secret that Big Tech censors have long enforced their own rules inconsistently,\u201d DeSantis said in a statement. \u201cIf this new report is true, Facebook has violated Florida law to put its thumb on the scale of numerous state and local races. Floridians deserve to know how much this corporate titan has influenced our elections. That is why I am directing Secretary Lee to use all legal means to uncover violations of Florida\u2019s election laws. The thought of Facebook clandestinely manipulating elections is an affront to the basic principles of our republic. We the people have the right to choose our representatives, whether or not Silicon Valley approves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The press release from DeSantis\u2019 office continued:<\/p>\n<blockquote readability=\"24\">\n<p><em>Internal documents obtained by the&nbsp;Wall Street Journal&nbsp;reveal the egregious double standard that Facebook applies to its users. While most people are subject to arbitrary censorship at the whims of so-called fact-checkers, Facebook grants select users the freedom to disregard the platform\u2019s own community standards without the threat of enforcement action.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>If the&nbsp;Wall Street Journal&nbsp;report is accurate, Facebook has created a privileged class of speakers and has empowered them to manipulate our elections with impunity. Even more disturbing, these elite users on Facebook\u2019s \u201cwhitelist\u201d were allegedly selected by the tech giant behind closed doors. The selection process, scope, and real-world influence of the whitelist is concealed from the public and known only to Facebook. If true, this process may have provided a benefit to incumbent elected politicians over their challengers in state and local elections.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Floridians deserve to have faith that their elections are free from Big Tech interference, and corporations like Facebook deserve to be held accountable for actions that erode the legitimacy of our institutions.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\" readability=\"8.2674772036474\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I am authorizing <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FLSecofState?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@FLSecofState<\/a> and the Florida Department of State to open an investigation into Facebook\u2019s alleged election interference through its whitelisting program.<br \/>&nbsp;<br \/>Floridians deserve to know how much Big Tech has influenced our elections. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/rmGmZ6BK6T\">pic.twitter.com\/rmGmZ6BK6T<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GovRonDeSantis\/status\/1442555086052503555?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 27, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><i><span>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><i><span>member<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis directed Secretary of State Laurel M. Lee to investigate Facebook for alleged election interference, saying that reports suggesting that Facebook impacted the results of state &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-820899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820899","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=820899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=820899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=820899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=820899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}