Governor Ron DeSantis has launched a big crackdown on Big Tech in Florida over their recent censorship in favor of the left. Here’s what he’s proposing:
BREITBART – The new regulations announced by DeSantis include:
- Mandatory opt-outs from big tech’s content filters, a solution to tech censorship first proposed by Breitbart News in 2018.
- A private right of action for Floridian citizens against tech companies that violate this condition.
- Fines of $100,000 per day levied on tech companies that suspend candidates for elected office in Florida from their platforms.
- Daily fines for any tech company “that uses their content and user-related algorithms to suppress or prioritize the access of any content related to a political candidate or cause on the ballot.”
- Greater transparency requirements.
- Disclosure requirements enforced by Florida’s election authorities for tech companies that favor one candidate over another.
- Power for the Florida attorney general to bring cases against tech companies that violate these conditions under the state’s Unfair and Deceptive Practices Act.
This is the widest and most aggressive range of regulatory and legislative solutions so far proposed by any U.S. state to tackle the problem of tech censorship.
Here’s even more from Newsmax:
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday proposed a law that would combat big tech’s “censorship” of right-wing political candidates and blasted the “monopoly of communications platforms” that “monitor and control” Floridians.
The legislation will target Facebook, Twitter, Google, Amazon, and Apple, according to Florida House Speaker Chris Sprowls.
“What began as a group of upstart technology companies from the west coast, has since transformed into an industry of monopoly communications platforms that monitor, influence, and control the flow of information in our country and among our citizens,” DeSantis said during a press conference at the State Capitol in Tallahassee.
“These platforms have played an increasingly decisive role in elections and have negatively impacted Americans who descend from orthodoxies favored by the big tech cartel,” he added.
Citing former President Donald Trump’s removal from Twitter in his final days in office and restrictions on social media app Parler, DeSantis said Big Tech has been allowed to “manipulate” news content and design algorithms that favor their candidates of choice.
“That’s why in Florida we’re gonna take aim at those companies and pull back the veil and make sure those guys don’t continue to find loopholes and grey areas to live above the law,” DeSantis said. “Under our proposal, if a technology company de-platforms a candidate for elected office in Florida during an election, that company will face a daily fine of $100,000 until the candidate’s access to the platform is restored.”
The bill, if passed, would prevent platforms from rapidly changing standards, allow people to opt out of content algorithms, create a “cause of action” pathway for legal action and fine tech companies $100,000 daily for “deplatforming” political candidates.
“Used to be that consumers were trusted to make their own decisions about what information to consume, about which leaders to ‘follow,’ about what news to watch,” said DeSantis. “Now those decisions are increasingly made by nameless, faceless boards of sensors.”
What are the chances of something like this passing? I’d say fairly good considering the makeup of the Florida legislature:
I’d say all of this sounds like a good start at fighting back against the heavy-handed censorship we’ve been seeing by Twitter and Facebook especially. Let’s hope he has success in getting this passed without it getting watered down too much.