New Florida social media law looks to stop the ban

If you are a politician in Florida, get ready to be able to post whatever you want on social media and face nearly zero consequences.

According The Sun-Sentinel, the Florida legislative body, controlled by the Republican party, passed a bill that would make it illegal for social media companies to ban politicians, with threat of hefty fines.

LINK: Florida passes bill to limit social media companies I The Hill

Companies would still be able to suspend accounts for two weeks, according to the legislation.

The bill is pending the signature of Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, who is expected to sign. 

Everyone should fully expect this law to be challenged in court, and opponents have many avenues to go.

I could argue the hypocrisy of the party that has long-touted itself against regulations now looking to impose regulations on a private business. You could also question how and if the state of Florida can enforce a regulation on companies based in California, namely Facebook and Twitter.

Or, this is merely them taking a talking point from former president Donald Trump, who had his accounts banned after multiple grossly false claims, or the fact the former president just happens to live in Florida.

In actuality, those arguments lead into the weeds and distract from the key issue.

"Congress shall make no law...abridging freedom of speech."

Simply put, the government can't limit a person's right to speak, with few exceptions, which you can read about here.

Outside of being in wartime or making clear and present danger, the government really has no ground to limit speech. Social media is essientially the digitized space for the street corner derelict to scream into the void. 

But a business can limit the speech of individuals, and proponents of the Florida law can further blame Citizen's United (2010) court case. 

Under that Surpeme Court case, political donations are equal to speech, and it also gave corporations and other businesses the ability to contribute to campaigns, confereing on those businesses effective personhood. 

And if money equals speech, in the eyes of the law, speech has to equal speech. 

Under this logic, if a social media company wants to limit speech of an elected official, or anyone else, it has that right to. 

........

Man, I thought this post would be longer and take more effort to debunk. Oh well, it isn't like the state of Florida is known for its sound decision-makers.