Tech companies sue Florida over social media censorship law

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Two tech trade groups are suing Florida over a new law prohibiting social media platforms from suspending politicians’ accounts.

Governor Ron DeSantis signed the bill on Monday, also allowing Floridians to sue tech companies on grounds of unjust censorship.

The 70-page lawsuit from NetChoice and the Computer & Communications Industry Association claims SB 7072 is a “profound infringement of the targeted companies’ fundamental constitutional rights.”

“The Act also exceeds the State of Florida’s authority under the Constitution’s Commerce Clause and is preempted by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Because the Act violates the constitutional rights of Plaintiffs’ members and contravenes federal law, it should be promptly enjoined before it takes effect on July 1, 2021,” the lawsuit reads.

“The Act discriminates against and infringes the First Amendment rights of these targeted companies, which include Plaintiffs’ members, by compelling them to host—and punishing them for taking virtually any action to remove or make less prominent—even highly objectionable or illegal content, no matter how much that content may conflict with their terms or policies.”

Matt Schruers, president of the CCIA, told WDBO that the companies affected by the law are engaged in everyday efforts to protect internet users from harmful content.

“That’s everything from more disinformation, propaganda, and anti-American extremism to crime and fraud. When those services make commitments to their users, they are going to provide a specific kind of experience. They need to be able to deliver on that,” Schruers said.

“The bottom line is that Florida legislatures worry that Governor DeSantis was making the internet a safe space for, and I quote, ‘Nazis, child molesters, and pedophiles,’ and that was coming from the governor’s ally. This bill stands to put everyday internet users at risk by constraining the efforts that happen around the clock to protect us from bad actors abroad and here.”

The governor’s office is defending the controversial law, telling WDBO that it anticipated legal challenges:

Constitutional protections are not a one-way street. On the contrary, there is a delicate balance in ensuring that citizens and businesses alike are protected against government overreach, but also, that all consumers are protected against abusive, discriminatory, and/or deceptive business practices. Social media companies claim that they are not “publishers” but neutral platforms; users therefore expect that the Terms of Service would be applied equally, without regard to political affiliation or ideology.

However, this is not the case. Big Tech companies enforce their own terms of service inconsistently. They discriminate along political and ideological lines. Regular people are silenced for questioning Silicon Valley orthodoxy (e.g., posts about the “lab leak theory” of COVID-19 were censored for months because they were deemed “disinformation”, but Facebook recently announced a reversal of that policy). On the other hand, those who elevate preferred narratives freely use Big Tech platforms to spread disinformation and hate (e.g., the Chinese Embassy in the US boasting on Twitter about forced sterilization of the Uighurs, or as Gov. DeSantis highlighted on Monday, Ayatollah Khamenei’s Tweets endorsing genocide of Jews).

Across the world, there are many examples of tech platforms censoring individuals on behalf of governments and de-platforming candidates who oppose the ruling party (e.g., Alexei Navalny is banned from the banking system in Russia, though the banks are private companies – they do Putin’s bidding to deplatform Putin’s high-profile opponents). Moreover, Big Tech lobbyists continue to be in bed with congressional and state legislators to avoid regulation and possible antitrust actions.

The bottom line is: Big Tech is in some ways more powerful than government, and certainly less accountable. Free speech is a sacred right for all Americans. It is recognized that government has a role in protecting consumers against discrimination and deceptive/unfair trade practices, and this law is within that authority to rein in a powerful entity that oversteps individuals’ free speech rights. We have no comment on any specific lawsuit, but we anticipated legal challenges. We are confident that this new legislation has a strong legal basis and protects Floridians’ constitutional rights.

—  - DeSantis spokeswoman Christina Pushaw via email.

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