The Orlando Sentinel reports:
A federal appeals court ruled Monday it is unconstitutional for Florida to prohibit social media companies from banning politicians, dealing a blow to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ push to combat what he declares to be online censorship.
A three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an injunction blocking key parts of Florida’s social media law pushed by the governor, writing that meddling with the platforms’ content-moderation policies ran afoul of the First Amendment.
DeSantis and other Republican leaders argued social media companies were biased toward conservatives and were censoring political speech.
Read the full article.
As a reminder:
These Legislature’s own staffers warned them that this bill was unconstitutional.
They simply didn’t care.https://t.co/1pbgrT6s7m— Scott Maxwell (@Scott_Maxwell) May 23, 2022
Appeals court blocks key parts of DeSantis’ Big Tech censorship law https://t.co/8jFQGwf3Ht pic.twitter.com/R0Y4RLprO8
— South Florida Sun Sentinel (@SunSentinel) May 23, 2022
There was no immediate response to emails Monday afternoon from DeSantis’ press secretary or communications director on the ruling. He was the first governor to sign a bill like this into law, although similar ones have been proposed in other states. https://t.co/STR89kVEXq
— 23 WIFR (@23WIFR) May 23, 2022