On April 29, the Florida Legislature passed a bill that would prohibit social media platforms with large user bases from intentionally blocking politicians and other Floridians.
The bill states that if a social media company blocks a user who they know is a political candidate, they would face hefty fines: $250,000 per day for blocking a state office (candidate); $25,000 per day for blocking a candidate for other offices.
The bill would apply to social media platforms that generate more than $100 million in annual revenue and have more than 100 million monthly users. This leaves many other platforms out of the picture, leaving only giant companies like Facebook and Twitter.
The bill comes at a time when social media platforms Facebook and Twitter are being criticized around the world for blocking users who simply express different political views.
Meanwhile, Democratic critics see the legislation as retaliation for former President Donald Trump’s blocking by the social media giants.
The bill, SB7072, was introduced by Republican state Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez. The bill passed by a vote of 77 to 38 and has been sent to Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis for his signature.
The report notes that Floridians have come to rely on social media platforms, which have become the new civic square for expressing public opinion.
The bill states, “Social media platforms are in a unique position to uphold the First Amendment protections for all Floridians and should be treated like common carriers.”
“Social media platforms that unfairly censor, block, remove from their platforms, or apply post prioritization algorithms to Florida political candidates, Florida users, or Florida residents are not acting in good faith.”
The bill defines the application of post prioritization algorithms as the act of a social media platform that prioritizes certain content or material, before, above, and prominently displays other content or material in news summaries, subscription summaries, views, or search results; and the use of these censorship tools so that users will see more or less posts by political persons.
The bill also extends protections to media organizations. The text of the bill makes it illegal for social media platforms to “censor, remove from the platform, or impose a ‘shadow ban’ based on the content published or broadcast by a news enterprise.
Recently, Twitter suspended the account of media organization Project Veritas on its platform, leading its founder James O’keefe to file a defamation lawsuit against the social media platform.
Recent Comments