Republican Governor of Florida Ron DeSantis is waging war against Big Tech “deplatforming” this week when he signed a bill allowing “any person” to sue Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc for up to “$100,000 in damages” if they’ve been wrongly censored.
“Real Floridians across the Sunshine State are guaranteed protection against the Silicon Valley Elites”
https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1396861517065330689
The MAGA-governor not only announced the signing of his bill, but he also took to twitter to laud his advances against the behemoths of Silicon Valley.
Florida’s Big Tech Bill gives every Floridian the power to fight back against deplatforming and allows any person to sue Big Tech companies for up to $100,000 in damages. Today, we level the playing field between celebrity and citizen on social media. https://t.co/SOW6DZZT2K
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) May 24, 2021
The bill protects social media by requiring Big Tech companies to inform their customers about content moderation practices that often disproportionally affect conservatives. Social media conglomerates, under DeSantis’ bill, must give Floridian users proper notice before any changes to their censorship policy go into effect, which prevents Big Tech bureaucrats from silently “moving the goalpost” against viewpoints they disagree with.
Florida attorney generals are empowered to “bring legal action against major tech companies that violate this law, under Florida’s Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act.”
In other words, if DeSantis’ new law is broken by major media companies, they will face serious legal and financial consequences, thus the law serves as an incentive to limit censorship of its users.
Political candidates running in Florida are also protected under the bill. The Sunshine State election Commission will rain down on the Big Tech bureaucrats with a $250,000 per day fine on any company that de-platforms any political candidate across the state.
Individual users are capable of blocking anyone they wish, or any politician they don’t want to hear from – a right that should be granted to every citizen without Big Tech intervention.
Author: Asa McCue
