DeSantis signs bill aimed at penalizing Big Tech

(The Center Square) – Florida Republicans adopted a series of bills during their recently concluded legislative session, including the Combating Public Disorder Act and a measure imposing new restrictions on vote-by-mail ballots.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has been signing them in ceremonies broadcast live on TV news networks that have all the trappings of campaign rallies.

Monday was another campaign rally bill-signing event with DeSantis signing into law Senate Bill 7072, forged as an attempt to penalize “Big Tech” for alleged censorship of conservatives.

Under SB 7072, users could sue in state courts and collect as much as $100,000 for every day a site kicks them off, deletes a post, or uses its algorithms to limit exposure to their posts.

“De-platforming” political candidates from a social media site could be prosecuted under Florida’s Unfair Trade Practices Act. Penalties would be as high as $250,000 a day for statewide candidates, $25,000 per day for local candidates.

SB 7072 would allow social media users to opt out of a platform’s algorithms that determine what appears highest on their feed. They could demand platforms feed them posts in the order they were written.

Also under the new law, tech companies that participate in antitrust activity will be barred from doing business with the state.

“Any Floridian can block any candidate they don’t want to hear from, and that is a right belonging to each citizen,” DeSantis said. “You simply can avert your eyes or not subscribe to what they’re doing. But it’s not for Big Tech to be weighing in on these elections and picking the candidates that have the right to speak and those that should be silenced.”

Flanked by GOP state legislators and exiles from Cuba and Venezuela during the signing ceremony at Florida International University’s (FIU) Adam Smith Center for the Study of Economic Freedom, the governor drew repeated applauses in his attacks against “Big Tech” and President Joe Biden.

“When you de-platform the President of The United States but you let Ayatollah Khomeini talk about killing Jews, that is wrong,” DeSantis said. “Maybe this isn’t as much (about) the bearded tyrant in the military fatigues – you know, maybe the person is in pajamas on their laptop drinking a soy latte in Silicon Valley.”

DeSantis transitioned from images of bearded terrorists and pajama-clad censors to the Cold War struggle between capitalism and communism, describing Florida as defending the American dream against a rising tide of socialism coming from within the nation.

“We are effectively America’s West Berlin over the last year, and people have viewed this as a free zone,” DeSantis said.

Technology companies wield more power than trusts did in the late 1800s, DeSantis said.

“These platforms have become our public square. Floridians and other Americans go on these platforms to be able to share ideas,” he said, noting while social media provided an alternative to “legacy media, and that was very, very positive for millions and millions of Americans, they have become enforcers of orthodoxy.”

After his Monday morning news conference at FIU in Miami, DeSantis was touted as “America’s Governor” by radio host Mark Levin and capped the day on Fox News’ Sean Hannity show blasting Big Tech for “doing the government’s bidding with Biden in there.

“We saw how they interfered in the election in 2020. Gimme a break,” DeSantis said. “You know what, when they have the power to silence you, you take it seriously.”

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