Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis ripped Big Tech during a press conference earlier today and announced new regulations that would attempt to limit Big Tech’s influence in his home state.
The new legislation would prevent Big Tech companies from censoring political figures along with mandating opt-outs of content-filters, according to Breitbart.
DeSantis claimed that companies like Twitter and Facebook have “negatively impacted” American citizens who disagree with their political viewpoints.
“Over the years, however, these platforms have changed from neutral platforms that provided Americans with the freedom to speak to enforcers of preferred narratives,” DeSantis charged. “Consequently, these platforms have played an increasingly decisive role in elections and have negatively impacted Americans who dissent from orthodoxies favored by the Big Tech cartel.”
DeSantis’ regulations would include imposing daily fines of $100,000 on tech companies that suspend political figures from their platforms in Florida. These fines will continue until the candidate regains access to his or her account. Florida would also fine these sites if they use “their content and user-related algorithms to suppress or prioritize the access of any content related to a political candidate or cause on the ballot,” according to Breitbart. Any promotion of one candidate over another would require a disclosure under the Peach State’s contribution transparency requirements, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
“The message is loud and clear: When it comes to elections in Florida, Big Tech should stay out of it,” DeSantis said.
The regulations would also make Big Tech companies notify users before removing them from their platforms.
DeSantis said this legislation is necessary due to Big Tech’s “censorship” and expanded influence.
“Big tech has come to look more like Big Brother with each passing day,” DeSantis said. “This is 2021, not 1984. And this is real life, not George Orwell’s fiction. These companies exert monopoly power over us.”
The Florida governor offered numerous examples of tech censorship, including permanently banning former President Donald Trump, suppressing the New York Post Hunter Biden story, and the “decapitation” of Parler, which was booted off of Amazon Web Services for apparently failing to impose required content moderation.
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