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Florida Governor Signs Bill Against Network Censorship

2021-05-26T21:01:56.528Z


The bill seeks to punish social networks that block candidates for office in the state and their residents from their platforms.


Florida to cut unemployment benefits 1:06

(CNN Business) -

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis hit big tech on Monday by signing a highly controversial state bill that aims to regulate how digital platforms moderate online content.

The legislation marks one of the biggest steps yet by a Republican governor to act on complaints of online censorship at the hands of companies such as Facebook, Google and Twitter.

But critics of the tech industry say the legislation is unconstitutional, setting the stage for a court battle over the law.

In public remarks on Monday, DeSantis blamed a "council of censors" in Silicon Valley for silencing the debate over COVID-19 quarantines and the origins of the disease.

"I would say that these lockdowns have ruined the lives of millions of people across the country," DeSantis said.

'Wouldn't it have been nice to have a full debate on that in our public square?

But that was not what Silicon Valley wanted to do.

The bill that DeSantis signed prohibits tech platforms from suspending or banning political candidates in the state, with possible fines of $ 250,000 per day if the candidate taken from the platform is nominated for state office and $ 25,000 per day if you are nominated for a local office.

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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis upholds signed legislation that seeks to punish social media platforms that remove conservative ideas from their sites, inside the MARC building at Florida International University, in Miami, Monday, May 24, 2021. (Carl Juste / Miami Herald via AP)

The legislation also gives Florida residents the ability to sue tech companies for disabling the use of their platforms. Similar bills have also been considered in states like Arkansas, Kentucky, Oklahoma and Utah.

The Florida bill comes at a time when US lawmakers have proposed significant changes to federal law that give tech platforms legal leeway to cure their platforms without being sued. The federal law, Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934, has come under fire from Democrats who argue that platforms benefit from the law's immunity protections without doing enough to curb offensive content, while Republicans They argue that the platforms restrict too much content.

Tech industry officials have repeatedly denied blocking or removing content for reasons of political ideology. Many technology platforms have policies that prohibit the dissemination of misinformation or false information about the 2020 elections, and some high-profile Republicans, such as former President Donald Trump, have violated those policies, leading to their suspension from major digital platforms.

Florida law will force technology platforms to step back from moderating their sites due to the threat of litigation by "any Internet user, from foreign extremists to

disgruntled Internet

trolls

," said the Association of the Computer and Communications Industry (CCIA) a technology trade group.

CCIA President Matt Schruers wrote in an op-ed for the Orlando Sentinel that there are sure to be lawsuits: “Florida taxpayers will also end up paying their share of the cost of enforcing the new regulations, and for the inevitable challenges laws that will come along with the effort of the legislature to adopt a law with obvious constitutional challenges.

The CCIA has also raised concerns about a highly controversial provision of the bill that exempts the websites of theme park operators, which some critics have interpreted as a special exemption for Disney.

(Comcast, which owns NBCUniversal and operates the Universal Orlando theme park, also appears to be covered by the exemption.)

Doubts about the constitutionality of the bill are based on First Amendment cases that prohibit the government from forcing private entities to speak out.

"The First Amendment to the United States Constitution, backed by Section 230, makes it very clear that states have no power to compel private companies to host speeches, especially by politicians," said Oregon Democratic Senator Ron. Wyden, a co-author of Section 230, in a statement regarding the signing of the Florida bill.

Internet censorship Florida Social media

Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2021-05-26

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