A group of tech companies, civil society and libertarian organizations filed two legal briefs on Friday against a controversial anti-censorship law for social media in Florida.
The pleadings argue that the anti-big-tech bill, which Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis signed in late May, harms consumers by preventing online retailers from building healthy online communities, restricting Floridians’ expression, and sacrificing domesticity Violence and cyberstalking are at risk of serious harm.
A group of nine tech industry and civil society organizations, including the National Black Justice Coalition and the Chamber of Progress, filed a legal amicus brief against the law, SB 7072, while TechFreedom, a libertarian tech policy think tank, filed the other submitted.
The pleadings support a federal lawsuit filed last month by two tech trading groups trying to block the law.
The groups said in their briefs that the law, due to come into effect July 1, would increase online harassment, disinformation and arson online content.
TECH TRADING GROUPS ARE SUITING FLORIDA LAWS THAT WOULD EXCLUDE SOCIAL MEDIA FROM POLICY
“The law will cause irreparable harm to consumers by depriving them of the protection they expect as part of their online experience, leaving them vulnerable to malicious and harmful actors and content, and denying them the healthy online environment that is essential for countless performance Performances are essential tasks of daily life from work to school to contact with family and friends, ”wrote the tech industry and civil society organizations.
The legislation, which DeSantis called “Florida’s Big Tech Bill,” would make it illegal to ban state political candidates from Facebook and Twitter, and would penalize social media companies up to $ 250,000 a day if they did remove any nationwide candidate from their platform. Deplating local candidates would incur a $ 25,000 per day fee.
The law also forces social media giants to notify users seven days before a likely lockdown and give them the opportunity to change their behavior and resolve the problem on the platform.
The story goes on
TechFreedom told the Washington Examiner that the law could backfire on Conservatives and lead to less freedom of expression than more.
If anti-censorship laws become law and enforced, social media platforms will be incentivized to change their content policies and rules to restrict more content out of caution, conservative lawyers say.
“Since SB 7072 blatantly violates the First Amendment, it is not even necessary to address the issue of joint promotion,” said Corbin Barthold, Internet policy advisor at TechFreedom. “But should the court see the need to deal with the common promotion theory, our brief explains in detail why this is a dead end for Florida.”
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Common carriers are accommodation providers, similar to utility companies or telecommunications companies, that are not allowed to disadvantage consumers who are willing to pay. Such companies can be subject to more government regulation than normal companies.
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Keywords: News, Politics, Social Media, Big Tech, Florida, Ron DeSantis, Censorship, Free Speech, First Amendment
Original author: Nihal Krishan
Original location: EXCLUSIVE: Civil rights and libertarian groups support lawsuit against DeSanti’s anti-censorship law
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