Florida governor Ron DeSantis proposed legislation to fine tech companies that deplatform political candidates in the state, at a press briefing on Tuesday evening.
While the governor did not mention former President Trump at the briefing, the proposal comes after Twitter permanently banned Trump and Facebook blocked his account pending further review. Twitter and Facebook made the decisions after Trump incited a mob of his supporters to amass at the Capitol, where they eventually breached the building and forced lawmakers to evacuate.
Additionally, Amazon ceased cloud-computing services for the social media site Parler, which caters to right-wing users. The move has forced Parler offline completely.
“We’ve seen the power of” social media companies’ “censorship over individuals and organizations, including what I believe is clear viewpoint discrimination,” DeSantis told reporters on Tuesday. “Under our proposal, if a technology company de-platforms a candidate for elected office in Florida during the election, a company will face a daily fine of $100,000 until the candidate’s access to the platform is restored again.”
The bill is still being drafted, and will include a provision penalizing social media companies whose algorithms are perceived to favor one specific candidate over another, The Miami Herald reported. The legislation would also require a tech company that promotes one candidate over an opponent to record the value of that promotion as a campaign contribution, to be regulated by the Florida Elections Commission.
DeSantis went on to label social media companies as “monopoly communications platforms” that have become “enforcers of preferred narratives.”
“You don’t like Parler? Then don’t read it,” DeSantis told reporters. “Let’s not have those choices made for us, or before long we will have nothing more than someone else’s choices imposed upon us by a bunch of monopolies whose core business is to sell advertising.”