Florida Politics by Jacob Ogles
January 20, 2020
Congressional candidate Laura Loomer can’t tweet anymore. She can’t post on Facebook, or even catch a ride with Uber or Lyft.
But she can still command a press conference. Expect her to do just that Tuesday when she stands by state Sen. Joe Gruters as he touts efforts to stop internet censorship.
Gruters filed the “Stop Social Media Censorship Act” (SB 1266), which could open social media platforms to civil damages for banning or suspending political speech.
He said the bill was inspired in part by Loomer. The South Florida blogger’s antics led to her famously getting booted by most platforms.
“Conservatives are being unfairly targeted,” Gruters said. “It’s worthwhile to continue to have this discussion.”
Gruters last year filed similar legislation. Notably, some free speech advocates said then the bill wasn’t truly supportive of the First Amendment because it required corporations to give a platform to views even if found offensive.
But Gruters said his legislation applies only to the biggest of social media providers, those platforms with more than 75 million subscribers. That includes Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.