2023 has been the year of Ron DeSantis making enemies.
The Florida Governor has been involved in a hard-fought crusade against Disney (DIS) -), when, in 2022, he signed a bill to eliminate Disney's special independent district and threatened to build a state prison near the amusement park.
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In July, DeSantis floated the idea of having the Florida pension fund agency investigate Bud Light parent company AB Inbev (BUD) -), claiming "there's got to be penalties when you put business aside to focus on your social agenda at the expense of hardworking people."
Most recently, DeSantis signed a law making diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs illegal at Florida universities.
"In Florida, we are not going to back down to the woke mob, and we will expose the scams they are trying to push onto students across the country," said DeSantis in a news release. "Florida students will receive an education, not a political indoctrination."
Suffice it to say that Ron DeSantis has a lot of concerns for Florida's residents, specifically the state's young people.
It should come as no surprise, then, that the latest enemy in DeSantis' scope is none other than popular social media app TikTok, which he recently called "very very toxic," in an interview with WSJ.
TikTok is owned by Chinese parent company ByteDance, and was recently banned in Montana.
DeSantis Takes Aim at TikTok
Asked whether DeSantis would support an outright ban of TikTok, the candidate was firm but remained coy about a hard and fast policy.
“I am inclined to not want TikTok in the United States,” he said. “I think it’s creating a security vulnerability for us. I think they are mining a lot of data.”
The U.S. Senate recently introduced the Restrict Act, which would give executive power to implement sweeping changes against foreign adversaries, apps, and other entities perceived as hostile to American interests. DeSantis said he probably wouldn't go as far as the Restrict Act currently goes, but left the door open for debate.
“At the end of the day I don’t want big brother to be getting into everybody’s apps,” DeSantis said. “It’s about vulnerabilities to our country.”
DeSantis' proposed economic plan takes square aim at China specifically. He says he would eliminate China's permanent normal trade relations status and ban imports made by China using intellectual property theft.
"But I do think in things that are a matter of national survival we can be thoughtful of how we’re incentivizing these industries to be here in the United States," he said.
