Gov. DeSantis Starts Investigation Against Facebook on Election Interference

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has instructed Laurel M. Lee, his Secretary of State, to start looking into Facebook’s alleged interference during the elections. He accused the big tech company of causing a huge impact in state and local elections, describing its effort as “an affront to the basic principles of our republic.”

In his letter addressed to Lee, De Santis directed the Secretary of State to immediately start a probe into the “alleged election interference” that Facebook caused via its whitelisting programs and other programs previously undisclosed within the website. He said this investigation would aim to see if Facebook violated any of Florida’s election laws. DeSantis also instructed Lee to use any legal means to see if such violations took place.

DeSantis Instructs Secretary of State to Launch Probe on Facebook

The Republican governor’s instruction come as a response to a Wall Street Journal report, claiming that Facebook gave special treatment to the platform’s elite users.

In his statement, DeSantis said that it’s not a secret that big tech companies have inconsistently enforced their own rules. He added that, if the WSJ report was true, Facebook would then have violated Florida law and impacted several state and local elections. With this, DeSantis said the people of Florida have the right to know to what extent the platform has managed to influence the elections. He gave this as his basis for mobilizing Lee to investigate Facebook and see if the social media giant has violated any state law. DeSantis added that the idea of Facebook having a hand at manipulating the elections is an insult to the country’s principles. The governor added that the people have the right to pick who will represent them, even if big tech companies approve of them or not.

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