Have Facebook and Twitter met their match in Florida's Governor? alipac.us - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from alipac.us Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Cohn: Social media bill is un-constitutional
Ari Cohn, J.D.
Special to Historic City News
Gov. Ron DeSantis claims his “Transparency in Technology Act” would protect free speech. The bill restricts how social media sites moderate objectionable content and requires “detailed definitions” of what content is prohibited. But the bill’s entire premise is backwards. As private entities, social media companies are not bound by First Amendment restrictions. In fact, they have their own First Amendment right to determine who may publish using their websites, and what messages will be allowed.
Woe to
Twitter if Ron DeSantis’ account is ever de-platformed or shadow-banned like we saw in the last presidential election.
UpdatedThu, May 6, 2021 at 3:40 pm ET
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he plans to sign the Transparency in Technology Act into law. (Governor s Office)
FLORIDA When Gov. Ron DeSantis signs the Transparency in Technology Act, Florida will become the first state in the nation to penalize social media companies for banning political candidates.
In one of its final acts before ending the 2021 legislative session April 30, the Florida House voted 77-38 and the Senate 23-17 to approve and forward a bill to DeSantis that would prohibit social media companies such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube from deplatforming, or banning, posts by political candidates.
Last week, the Florida Legislature passed a bill prohibiting social media platforms from “knowingly deplatforming” a candidate (the Transparency in Technology Act, SB 7072), on pain of a fine of up to $250k per day, unless, I kid you not, the platform owns a sufficiently large theme park.
Governor DeSantis is expected to sign it into law, as he called for laws like this. He cited social media de-platforming Donald Trump as examples of the political bias of what he called “oligarchs in Silicon Valley.” The law is not just about candidates, it also bans “shadow-banning” and cancels cancel culture by prohibiting censoring “journalistic enterprises,” with “censorship” including things like posting “an addendum” to the content, i.e. fact checks.
Ron DeSantis climbs another rung up the presidential ladder americanthinker.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from americanthinker.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.