Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Falls for Netflix Price Hike Tweet From Parody Account

Say what you will about Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

Go ahead. We’ll wait.

Most observers would agree that the area that should be occupied by his brain is likely filled with pudding. Not even good pudding. Like some Dollar Tree butterscotch flavor. Anyway, this interaction on X (formerly Twitter) suggests DeSantis may not be the kind of person you want leading a state with 24 million people.

This is remarkable for several reasons.

1. DeSantis did not think to double-check this “fact” with any other source before retweeting.
   
   
2. DeSantis did not click on the account that made the post. It clearly identifies itself as a parody account. Had the Governor of Florida taken a few seconds to review his source, he might have seen other tweets like:
   
   – Pikachu has reportedly passed away.
   – Dr. Miami will be offering free BBL surgeries on Valentine’s Day.
   – Barney (the dinosaur) is reportedly in the Epstein Files.
   – Stevie Wonder reportedly taking driving classes.
   
   Yes, these are literal posts by the same account.
   
   
3. DeSantis allowed himself to think, even briefly, that Netflix would double the price of its most-expensive tier all at once.
   
   
4. As he began writing, he expressed doubt that the tweet was true, but chose not to abandon the tweet.
   
   
5. When the original tweet got slapped with a Community Note, DeSantis left his tweet up.

Sure, you can lay some of this at the feet of Elon Musk, who killed off the very-useful blue checkmark signifier for verified accounts. Now, anyone with $8/month can get the blue checkmark. Any longtime Twitter users will have the knee-jerk reaction to trust the checkmark.

But in 2026, we all have a responsibility to provide a little scrutiny before amplifying any information. Your grandmother will believe even the worst AI slop. And the state DeSantis governs is absolutely packed with grandmothers.

If you look at the responses to DeSantis’s tweet, nearly everyone is dunking on him for falling for such an obvious hoax. The exceptions are other “verified” accounts that seem like Russian bots designed to post the most inflammatory rage-bait.

In 2022, DeSantis vowed he would not be cowed by false media narratives. But apparently, he’s fine spreading them.