Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis put pen to paper on Monday, signing a bill to rein in Big Tech companies while empowering users who believe they’ve been discriminated against.
“This session, we took action to ensure that ‘We the People’ — real Floridians across the Sunshine State — are guaranteed protection against the Silicon Valley elites,” said Governor Ron DeSantis. “Many in our state have experienced censorship and other tyrannical behavior firsthand in Cuba and Venezuela. If Big Tech censors enforce rules inconsistently, to discriminate in favor of the dominant Silicon Valley ideology, they will now be held accountable.”
According to a release from DeSantis, SB 7072 ensures all Floridians treated unfairly by Big Tech have the right to sue companies that violate the law, as well as win monetary damages.
“This reform safeguards the rights of every Floridian by requiring social media companies to be transparent about their content moderation practices and give users proper notice of changes to those policies, which prevents Big Tech bureaucrats from ‘moving the goalposts’ to silence viewpoints they don’t like,” the release states.
The Florida Attorney General will be able to bring action against tech companies that violate the law under Florida’s Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act. If platforms are found to have violated the antitrust law, they’ll be restricted from contracting with any public entity.
The Florida Election Commission will impose fines of $250,000 per day on any social media company that deplatforms any candidate for statewide office and $25,000 per day for deplatforming candidates for non-statewide offices. Any Floridian can block any candidate they don’t want to hear from.
“That is a right that belongs to each citizen,” the release said. “It’s not for Big Tech companies to decide.”
The full text of Senate Bill 7072 is available here.
