Florida Governor DeSantis announces Big Tech censorship proposals
Florida’s high profile Governor, Ron DeSantis, has stepped forward from the cowering Republican Party to hold the Big Tech media platforms to account for their censorship of politicians and citizens. DeSantis was scathing about Big Tech in a press conference held at the State Capitol building in Tallahassee on Tuesday, February 2nd.
He informed the attendant press that he intends to put forward legislation under the Transparency in Technology Act to limit the power Big Tech, specifically social media platforms, holds over Floridians. ‘Today they may come after someone who looks like me. Tomorrow they may come after someone who looks like you,’ DeSantis warned the reporters from the MSM.
DeSantis proposes to require firms to give advance notice of one month for any changes in their terms of service, allow the opting out of content algorithms, provide a ‘cause of action’ pathway for legal action by users, a requirement to reveal how they became aware of censored content, and to tighten up privacy rules around users data.
It is his other proposals that have garnered criticism from members of the press and left-leaning commentators since his press conference. These include ensuring candidates running for office have equal access to social media, do not suffer ‘shadow banning’ and fines for deplatforming or political bias by the platform providers.
He also said that the promotion of a particular political candidate/s to the detriment of others would be reclassified as ‘in-kind political contributions’. This alone could have a massive effect on the Democrat Party; published political contributions have shown that Big Tech companies, and their employees, donate millions to them directly. The cost of bias promotion could run into the tens of millions over an election period.
‘Under our proposal, if a technology company deplatforms a candidate for elected office in Florida during an election, that company will face a daily fine of $100,000 until the candidate’s access to the platform is restored,’ DeSantis told the biased media.
‘What began as a group of upstart technology 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,’ said Governor DeSantis.
‘It used to be that consumers were trusted to make their own decisions about what information to consume, about which leaders to ‘follow,’ about what news to watch. Now those decisions are increasingly made by nameless, faceless boards of censors,’ he continued.
That so many in the MSM have taken umbrage to DeSantis and his proposals strengthen his case that having the ‘wrong’ political view can see Big Tech censor users. ‘Twitter, Facebook, and other similar platforms have changed from neutral platforms to enforcers of preferred narratives,’ DeSantis said to those present.
Time will tell if Florida Governor DeSantis and his Big Tech censorship proposals become law in the coming year, but his close connections to President Trump might have something to do with his push against Big Tech.
