Appeals Court Rules Florida’s Unconstitutional Social Media Law –

St. Petersburg, Florida. (AP) – Florida law seeking to penalize social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter is an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment, the Federal Court of Appeals on Monday ruled that a significant victory was awarded to the companies. accused GOP Gov. Ron Desantis on Discrimination Against Conservative Opinion.

The three-judge jury of the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled it was an over-simplification of the Florida-led legislature to tell social media companies how to conduct their work under warranty of constitutional independence.

“In other words, with a few exceptions, the government cannot tell a private individual or entity what to say or how to say it,” said District Judge Kevin Newsom, candidate for former President Donald Trump. “We believe it is important that social media companies, even the largest, are private actors whose rights are protected by the First Amendment.

“Some of these big, big Silicon Valley corporations are wielding power over our people that really hasn’t been done in American history,” Desantis said at the bill’s signing ceremony in May 2021. “Looks like one of the their main mission is to suppress ideas ”.

However, the Appeals Chamber found that the share of tech companies was protected, where Judge News wrote that Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and others were “involved in significant constitutional activity when regulating and curating the content they broadcast on their platforms. “

There was no immediate response to emails Monday afternoon following the decision of DeSantis ’spokesperson or director of communications. DeSantis is running for re -election this year and is looking at a potential ballot for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024. He is the first governor to sign a similar bill, though a similar bill has been proposed in other states.

One of them, Texas, has been enforced by the U.S. District 5 Court of Appeals and the tech companies involved are calling for an immediate hearing to block the U.S. Supreme Court. The decision was not published immediately.

The Computer and Communications Industry Association, a nonprofit group representing technology and communications companies, said the decision was a win for internet users and free speech in general, especially since it involves content. potentially offensive.

“When a digital service acts against problematic content on its site – whether it’s extremism, Russian propaganda or racism and insults – it is exercising its right to freedom of expression,” said CCIA president Matt Schroeder in a statement.

As expected, the law will give the Florida Attorney General the power to sue companies under the State’s Fraudulent and Unfair Traffic Act. It will also allow individual Florida residents to sue social media companies for up to $ 100,000 if they believe they were being treated unfairly.

The bill targets social media platforms that reach more than 100 million users each month, including online giants like Twitter and Facebook. But lawmakers have made exceptions for Walt Disney Co. and in their questions saying theme park owners are not subject to the law.

The law requires large social media companies to publish standards on how to resolve “censorship, deployability and prohibition”.

But the Court of Appeal rejected almost all legal orders, except for a few minor provisions of the law.

“Social media platforms make an editorial judgment, which is essentially stated.” When platforms choose to delete users or posts, prioritize content in viewer channels or search results, or penalize violations of their community standards, they will conduct a modified activity first, ”Newsom wrote in court.

Associated Press writers Mark Sherman in Washington and Brendan Farrington in Tallahassee contributed to this story.