Judge blocks Florida’s social media law
1Reported today on The Verge
For the full article visit: https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/30/22558086/florida-social-media-theme-park-law-preliminary-injunction-lawsuit
Reported today in The Verge.
Judge blocks Florida's social media law
A Florida internet law is on hold while a lawsuit contesting it continues. Judge Robert Hinkle has issued a preliminary injunction blocking nearly all of SB 7072, a controversial and sweeping regulation of social media platforms.
"The legislation now at issue was an effort to rein in social-media providers deemed too large and too liberal. Balancing the exchange of ideas among private speakers is not a legitimate governmental interest," Hinkle wrote his order. Moreover, the law "discriminates on its face among otherwise identical speakers," partly thanks to an eyebrow-raising exemption for companies that operate a theme park. That raises the bar for evaluating whether the law violates the First Amendment - and in Hinkle's estimation, it probably does.
SB 7072, signed by Governor Ron DeSantis in May, limits when web services can kick off users. It includes a ban on suspending or annotating the posts of political candidates, a requirement that users can "opt out" of algorithmic sorting systems, and an "antitrust violator blacklist" for companies that break the rules. As mentioned above, the rules don't apply to "a company that owns and operates a theme park or entertainment complex," placating media conglomerates like Disney.
Industry groups NetChoice and the CCIA sued to stop the law's enforcement, saying it would compel social media platforms to host offensive speech that violated their editorial policies. Judge Hinkle heard arguments from both groups and the DeSantis administration on Monday, when he appeared dubious of the law, calling the theme park exemption in particular a "major constitutional issue."
The injunction is similarly skeptical, summarizing the law as follows:
"The state of Florida ha