TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Florida Senate Appropriations Committee voted Monday to send a prohibition on social media "deplatforming" to the chamber's floor for final approval, with one Republican breaking ranks with his party to oppose the measure.

Sen. Jeff Brandes (R-St. Petersburg) railed against the legislation as an act of nanny state largesss inconsistent with the party's values.

"I can't believe that we would vote yes on this bill. I can't believe we would," he said before Monday's vote. "As a small government conservative body, this is the exact opposite of the things that we stand for."

But the bill is a top priority for Gov. Ron DeSantis and is all but certain to reach his desk. The first iteration of the legislation was filed shortly after former President Donald Trump was suspended from Twitter and Facebook in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Trump was widely accused of inciting the insurrection.

In announcing his support for the crackdown in January, DeSantis warned Floridians' free speech rights were under assault by Silicon Valley.​

"If they engage in wrong think or they go to the wrong political event, then all of a sudden, they can act in concert and just take you off? You need to have protection against that," he told reporters.

In statements, Facebook and Twitter said they had blocked or removed Trump from their platforms due to his incendiary rhetoric and its potential to foment violence.

While Brandes contended that private companies have a right to ban users from their proprietary platforms, one of the legislation's authors, Sen. Ray Rodrigues (R-Estero) said no such right should exist given the platforms' extraordinary reach.

"The simple fact is a monopoly is not a free market," he told the committee. "Now, you may disagree that they're monopolies, but the truth is they're acting as monopolies."

The Florida House is set to begin debating its version of the deplatforming legislation Tuesday.