Brief Commentary: The recently passed Transparency and Technology Act allows the state of Florida to restrict social media sites on how they moderate content on their sites. According to Governor Ron DeSantis, this represents a stand against “censorship.” Under this act, social media companies can be fined up to $250,000 per day for every statewide political candidate who is removed from their platforms and $25,000 per day for every non-statewide political candidate who is removed from their platforms.
Contrary to DeSantis’ claims, this is actually an example of government censorship. In essence, the law allows the state of Florida to tell private social media companies what they can or cannot publish on their sites. This is a clear violation of the First Amendment’s free speech rights and Section 230 of the Communications Act. It will be challenged in court, Florida tax payers will have to pick up the cost, and it will be found unconstitutional. The 1rst Amendment, as with all the Bill of Rights, are restrictions placed on the actions of the government not the actions of private citizens or companies. This law violates the free speech rights of the social media companies. DeSantis and Florida Republicans, of course, know this very well. With this law DeSantis is merely pandering to the Trump electorate in preparation for his campaign for a second term run for governor in 2022 and, quite possibly, his own run for the presidency in 2024.
Where is the conservative outrage against this clear violation of free speech by the state of Florida? I have heard no outrage from conservatives to DeSantis’ recent restrictions placed on the actions of local governments and now he is attacking free speech rights. Where is the conservative outrage?
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