Ron DeSantis Signs ‘Digital Bill Of Rights’ Legislation To Curb Big Tech
Mary Lou Masters on June 6, 2023
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation Tuesday designed to curb government involvement in Big Tech censorship and data collection.
DeSantis signed Senate Bill 262, creating a “Digital Bill of Rights” to protect consumers’ data, according to a press release. The legislation also requires larger search engines like Google to communicate whether they alter search results based on partisanship, and prohibits state and local government from partnering with Big Tech companies to censor speech.
“Floridians should have the right to control their own personal data,” DeSantis said in a statement. “If a multibillion-dollar company is conspiring to take your data and sell it or use it against you, it is your right to be able to protect that data. No longer will the Big Tech oligarchs be able to commandeer your personal information and deprive you of the right to access, confirm, or delete that data as you wish.”
The “Digital Bill of Rights” established the rights to confirm, delete or access personal data on social media outlets, to know one’s personal data won’t be used against them when buying a house, applying for a job or getting health insurance, to be aware of search engines’ prioritizing results based on political ideology, to stop one’s personal data from being sold and to protect children’s information from being obtained.
The legislation requires online search engines to publish descriptions of their parameters that determine the ranking of results, including the degree of political partisanship used and their reasoning for it, according to the press release.
Government employees are now barred from working with social media companies to censor or de-platform accounts, and agencies may not work with such companies “for the purpose of content moderation,” the press release reads.
DeSantis’ signing of the legislation comes as Republicans across the country are fighting Big Tech censorship of conservative viewpoints, as well as red states seeking social media restrictions for children. Montana made history as the first state in the nation to ban TikTok, citing concerns over sensitive data collection and links to the Chinese Communist Party, and Utah became the first to restrict teenagers’ social media usage due to mental health concerns.
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