Florida statute purports to regulate ‘deplatforming’ Post categories
May 10, 2021
It was a Florida law granting political candidates a right to reply to unfavorable press coverage that, nearly 50 years ago, prompted the Supreme Court’s declaration in
Miami Herald Publishing Co. v. Tornillo that the First Amendment zealously guards a newspaper’s “exercise of editorial control and judgment.” Now, Florida is testing the boundaries of editorial freedom again with a new statute that purports to bar social media platforms from “willfully deplatforming a candidate” for office, backed by stiff daily fines for any site that fails to comply.
The rhymes between the moments are more than a little eerie. As the New York Times noted at the time, President Richard Nixon was a vocal supporter of proposals for a federal right-to-reply statute, and the debate surrounding the