TAMPA, Fla. — Florida's Senate Appropriations Committee will debate a controversial act on Monday that aims to regulate social media platforms that de-platform political candidates.
What You Need To Know
- Florida's Senate Appropriations Committee will debate the Transparency in Technology Act on Monday
- The Act aims to regulate social medial platforms that de-platform political candidates
- The Act proposes fines for social media companies, citizens to be able to sue tech companies, and users to opt-out of controversial algorithms
- The Act has already passed some key Florida House Committees
The act was pushed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in February shortly after President Donald Trump was banned for life from Twitter, and tech giants Google and Apple moved to wipe out another popular Republican social media platform called Parler.
The Transparency in Technology Act calls for 3 major regulatory actions against social media giants:
- Fines of up to $100,000 per day for social media companies banning political candidates, until the pages are restored
- Allow citizens or the Attorney General to sue tech giants for violating their terms of service
- Allow users to opt-out of controversial algorithms that tailor political and other content to a particular person
Republicans have argued since President Trump was banned from Twitter that tech oligarchs are censoring Republican-leaning users and posts while favoring news stories and content from Democrat sources.
In an ironic twist, Democrats are now saying Florida's Transparency in Technology Act violates the First Amendment.
Democrats argue as private companies, social media platforms like Twitter have an editorial right under the First Amendment to publish or censor content, just like a privately owned newspaper publishes an editorial section.
Any government actions limiting those publishing rights violate a platform's freedom of speech rights.
The Transparency in Technology act has already passed some key Florida House Committees.
There is no set date the Act could see a full vote.