WASHINGTON, DC, May 25 — Let the liar beware. Governor Ron DeSantis has signed legislation that gives Floridians the right to sue Big Tech social media companies that ban or censor free speech. The law would let the state’s residents sue them for up to $100,000 for each proven incident of misrepresented suppression. It is the first state to do so.
As he described it at a press conference yesterday, the new law will “ensure that ‘We the People’ — real Floridians across the Sunshine State — are guaranteed protection against the Silicon Valley elites. If Big Tech censors [or] enforce rules inconsistently, to discriminate in favor of the dominant Silicon Valley ideology, they will now be held accountable.”
It will also give Florida’s attorney general the power take to task companies that violate the law.
The law comes a month after DeSantis declared that there is “big tech, corporate-media collusion” and that what “we’re really witnessing is Orwellian.” After YouTube removed a video posted on the YouTube website, he made those remarks in which participants at a conference DeSantis hosted commented on kids wearing masks in school. The folks at YouTube are said to have pulled the video because the discussion at the conference allegedly contradicted the prevailing consensus of health officials.
Should a social media platform shut down a political candidate for statewide office in the state, the Florida Election Commission can impose fines of $250,000 per day.
“SB 7072 is a bold first step to reining in Big Tech tyranny by defending the rights of all Floridians in the digital space. Over the years, these platforms have changed from neutral platforms that provide Americans with the freedom to speak to enforcers of preferred narratives,” DeSantis explained.
Florida’s Lieutenant Governor Jeanette Nunez participated in yesterday’s press conference declaring that the state “is taking back the virtual public square” and noting that “many of our constituents know the dangers of being silenced or have been silenced themselves under communist rule.”