A federal judge has blocked a recently-enacted Florida law that was meant to authorize the state to penalize social media companies when they ban political candidates, with the judge saying the law likely violated free speech rights.
U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle in Tallahassee issued a preliminary injunction Wednesday blocking enforcement of the law, which was scheduled to go into effect Thursday.
“This order preliminarily enjoins enforcement of the parts of the legislation that are preempted or violate the First Amendment,” the judge said in the order filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District Of Florida.
“The plaintiffs are likely to prevail on the merits of their claim that these statutes violate the First Amendment,” Hinkle wrote.
States Constitution guarantees citizens the right to free speech.
Two tech trade groups had filed a lawsuit against Florida in May over the new law.
The lawsuit claimed the bill signed by Republican Governor of Florida in May was unconstitutional. It was filed by lobbying groups representing Big Tech Giants like Facebook, Twitter, and Google.
Florida was going to be the first state to regulate how social media companies moderated online speech. The new law would have made it easier for Florida’s attorney general and others in the state to sue the tech companies over claims that platforms have imposed content moderation on users unfairly or inconsistently.
The law was criticized by internet law experts as unconstitutional and as pre-empted by Section 230, a federal law that shields online companies from liability over content posted by users.
Former President Donald Trump, also a Republican, was blocked on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube after the platforms banned or suspended him over risks of further violence following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, in which some of his supporters participated. The ban added to Republicans’ long-standing accusations that online platforms censor content due to anti-conservative bias.
Author: Val Dohm
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