Florida Enacts Law To Punish Social Media Companies That Ban Political Candidates

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Florida) signed a bill Monday that gives the state government the ability to punish social media companies – such as Facebook and Twitter – when they ban political candidates.

The bill is a response from the Republican side after Facebook and Twitter banned former President Donald Trump in January after the Capitol Insurrection.

DeSantis announced the law as an effort to fight against “Silicon Valley elites,” which he claimed were trying to suppress conservative political voices.

“What we’ve been seeing across the U.S. is an effort to silence, intimidate and wipe out dissenting voices by the leftist media and big corporations,” DeSantis said in a statement.

DeSantis also argued that so-called “Big Tech” enforced their rules “inconsistently” in favor of their “ideology.”

“If Big Tech censors enforce rules inconsistently, to discriminate in favor of the dominant Silicon Valley ideology, they will now be held accountable,” DeSantis said.

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and several social media platforms banned Trump soon after the Capitol riot on January 6. Trump repeatedly violated these platforms’ terms of service, including terms that ban the encouragement of violence.

Article by Dongyoon Shin