Under the law, the state allows large social media companies to impose fines of up to $250,000 a day if they remove or delete the account of a political candidate across a state and $25,000 a day for someone seeking public office. if they are seeking a local position. It also requires social media companies to notify users within seven days that they will be censored, and that they will be given time to correct the post.
Two technology trade groups, NetChoice and the Computer and Communications Industry Association, claimed Florida was attempting to censor free speech and expression by compelling social media companies to host speech and speakers they disagree with.
Their lawsuit alleged Florida’s new law was a “blatant attack” on the content moderation choices social media companies make daily to protect the public and advertisers from pornography, terrorist incitement, false propaganda spread by foreign actors, calls for genocide or race-based violence, COVID-19 vaccines disinformation, fraudulent schemes and other harmful, offensive or illegal material.
“America’s judiciary system is designed to protect our constitutional rights, and today’s ruling is no different, ensuring that Florida’s politically motivated law does not force Floridians to endure racial epithets, aggressive homophobia, pornographic material, beheadings, or other gruesome content just to use the internet,” Carl Szabo, vice president and general counsel of NetChoice, said in a statement.
Legal experts also questioned the law’s viability.
Eric Goldman, a law professor at Santa Clara University, told USA TODAY that the Florida law was bound to draw legal challenges as some of the new law’s provisions are “obviously unconstitutional.”
“The Supreme Court has made it clear that publishers have the freedom to pick and choose what content they want to publish, and the bill blatantly seeks to strip publishers of that freedom,” he said. “Florida residents should expect better from their legislators, and now they see their tax dollars spent defending an indefensible bill that never should have passed.”
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