Florida’s ban on bans will test First Amendment rights of social media companies – By Devin Coldewey (Techcrunch) / May 24 2021
Florida governor Ron DeSantis has signed into law a restriction on social media companies’ ability to ban candidates for state offices and news outlets, and in doing so offered a direct challenge to those companies’ perceived free speech rights. The law is almost certain to be challenged in court as both unconstitutional and in direct conflict with federal rules.
The law, Florida Senate Bill 7072, provides several new checks on tech and social media companies. Among other things:
- Platforms cannot ban or deprioritize candidates for state office.
- Platforms cannot ban or deprioritize any news outlet meeting certain size requirements.
- Platforms must be transparent about moderation processes and give users notice of moderation actions.
- Users and the state will have the right to sue companies that violate the law. Statutory fines could be as high as $250,000 per day for some offenses.
The law establishes rules affecting these companies’ moderation practices; that much is clear. But whether doing so amounts to censorship — actual government censorship, not the general concept of limitation frequently associated with the word — is an open question, if a somewhat obvious one, that will likely be forced by legal action against SB 7072.
