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Did you Know

February 3, 2021
Admin

By Paul Waldmiller

Did you know that Governor Ron DeSantis recently identified discrimination against political conservatives via big tech companies? Recently he and Republicans in the Florida Legislature stated that
they will back a bill that punishes Twitter, Facebook, Google, Apple and Amazon for limiting free speech on either social media platforms or other areas on the internet.
Governor DeSantis speaking at the Capital in Tallahassee stated specifically that “As these companies have grown and their influence has expanded, Big Tech has come to look more like Big Brother with every passing day. But this is 2021, not 1984, and this is real life, not George Orwell’s fiction. The
companies exert monopoly power over a centrally important forum in the public discourse and the access of information that Floridians rely on.”
DeSantis went on in his statement to members of the press, “What began as a group of upstart companies from the West Coast has since transformed into an industry of monopoly communications platforms that monitor, influence, and control the flow of information in our country and among our citizens, and they do this to an extent hitherto unimaginable.”
The Governor and the GOP have already put in their proposed bill what they consider are protections for every Floridian including;

  • Disclosure requirements enforced by Florida’s election authorities for tech companies that
    favor one candidate over another.
  • Fines of $100,000 per day levied on tech companies that suspend candidates for elected office in
    Florida from their platforms.
  • Daily fines for any tech company “that uses their content and user-related algorithms to suppress or
    prioritize the access of any content related to a political candidate or cause on the ballot.”
  • Mandatory opt-outs from big techs content filters, a solution to tech censorship.
  • A private right of action for Florida citizens against tech companies that violate this condition.
  • Power for the Florida Attorney General to bring cases against tech companies that violate these
    conditions under the state’s “Unfair and Deceptive Practices Act.”
    and, + Greater transparency requirements.