{"id":66474,"date":"2021-05-24T21:27:28","date_gmt":"2021-05-25T01:27:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=66474"},"modified":"2021-05-24T21:32:57","modified_gmt":"2021-05-25T01:32:57","slug":"florida-governor-signs-ban-on-deplatforming-by-tech-companies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=66474","title":{"rendered":"Florida governor signs ban on &#8216;deplatforming&#8217; by tech companies"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1><strong>Florida law will regulate how social media companies moderate speech<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p><!--more-->Ashley Gold<br \/>\nAXIOS<\/p>\n<div class=\"cbbc7v-0 iNrCiz col-1-13 sm:col-3-11\">\n<div class=\"dm9ls1-0 bIqTEE\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_66521\" style=\"width: 662px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-66521\" class=\"size-full wp-image-66521\" src=\"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Screen-Shot-2021-05-24-at-9.32.38-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"652\" height=\"372\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Screen-Shot-2021-05-24-at-9.32.38-PM.png 652w, https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Screen-Shot-2021-05-24-at-9.32.38-PM-300x171.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 652px) 100vw, 652px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-66521\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ron DeSantis. Photo by Cliff Hawkins\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"col-1-13 sm:col-3-11 \">\n<div class=\"b0w77w-0 jhsJV mt-12 mb-20 sm:mt-20 gtm-story-text p\">\n<p>Florida Monday became the first state in the U.S. to broadly regulate social media platforms&#8217; moderation of user speech online.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Driving the news:\u00a0<\/strong>Republican Governor Ron DeSantis signed\u00a0<a class=\"gtm-content-click\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myfloridahouse.gov\/Sections\/Documents\/loaddoc.aspx?FileName=_s7072er.DOCX&amp;DocumentType=Bill&amp;BillNumber=7072&amp;Session=2021\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-vars-link-text=\"a law\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/www.myfloridahouse.gov\/Sections\/Documents\/loaddoc.aspx?FileName=_s7072er.DOCX&amp;DocumentType=Bill&amp;BillNumber=7072&amp;Session=2021\" data-vars-event-category=\"story\" data-vars-sub-category=\"story\" data-vars-item=\"in_content_link\">a law<\/a>\u00a0fining social media services that permanently ban candidates running for office in Florida.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The law also prevents platforms from removing content from news outlets above a certain size.<\/li>\n<li>It allows people to sue platforms if they think social media companies are inconsistently applying their content rules.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Yes, but:<\/strong>\u00a0Legal experts expect the law to face constitutional challenges.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Corbin Barthold, internet policy counsel at tech policy think tank TechFreedom, called it a &#8220;First Amendment train wreck.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Of note:\u00a0<\/strong>Companies are exempt from the law if they own a theme park or another type of entertainment venue bigger than 25 acres.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>That gives Florida-based Disney and Universal Studios a pass on the new online rules.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What they&#8217;re saying<\/strong>: &#8220;If Big Tech censors enforce rules consistently to discriminate in favor of the dominant Silicon Valley ideology, they will now be held accountable,&#8221; DeSantis said, describing the bill as a recourse for Florida residents who think they&#8217;ve been unfairly treated by tech companies.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>On a call with reporters, officials from DeSantis&#8217; office said they were confident the law would stand up to legal scrutiny.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What to watch:<\/strong>\u00a0Other states have considered similar bills, but this is the first to make it to a governor&#8217;s desk.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Republican ire with tech companies and content moderation policies has risen steadily, especially after former President Donald Trump lost his Twitter and Facebook accounts following the January 6 Capitol riot.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>___<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/florida-law-free-speech-social-media-law-2118460e-4a59-4a67-a9bf-d4c79d0128fb.html\">https:\/\/www.axios.com\/florida-law-free-speech-social-media-law-2118460e-4a59-4a67-a9bf-d4c79d0128fb.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Florida law will regulate how social media companies moderate speech<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=66474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66474\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=66474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=66474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=66474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}