Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida announced Tuesday that his party intends to end a special carve-out for Disney in a recently passed anti-censorship social media law.
The Florida Republicans want to punish Disney for opposing one of DeSantis’s recent controversial bills, the state’s HB 1557 law, known by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” law.
Roy Disney, the grandnephew of Walt Disney, revealed earlier this month that he has a transgender child and is opposed to the bill, which bans classroom instruction of sexual orientation and gender identity from kindergarten through the third grade.
Republicans want to hit back at Disney through another piece of legislation they call “Florida’s Big Tech Bill,” which passed last May and originally had a special carve-out allowing companies with theme parks — such as Disney, which is a big employer and taxpayer within the state — to be exempt from the law.
<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1650399646013,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"0000017f-e2f4-de00-a7ff-e7fff8030000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1650399646013,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"0000017f-e2f4-de00-a7ff-e7fff8030000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"","_id":"00000180-435f-d612-a1e5-53ffb04e0000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video Embed
TECH TRADE GROUPS SUE TO BLOCK FLORIDA LAW THAT WOULD BAR SOCIAL MEDIA FROM BANNING POLITICIANS
Disney’s online streaming platform, Disney+, could be forced to carry certain user-generated comments if the Florida Republicans succeed in taking away Disney’s special privileges in the law, which has been put on pause by a court ruling.
“We’re going to look at our options because I think these are really significant issues,” said DeSantis. “To have a free society governing ourselves, you really need to have people stand up and speak the truth.”
“When you’ve had a lot of these big institutions, from media to tech, that have really been corrupted by ideology, they don’t want you speaking the truth. When you speak the truth, that threatens their position and power,” DeSantis added.
The bill was originally intended to make it illegal to ban state political candidates from Facebook and Twitter, and it would dole out penalties of $250,000 a day to social media companies for any statewide candidate removed from a platform. De-platforming more local candidates would incur a fee of $25,000 a day.
The bill also forces social media giants to give users seven days’ notice before they are likely to be banned in order to give them a chance to change their behavior and resolve the problem on the platform.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The bill has currently been blocked in court after a group of tech industry, civil society, and libertarian organizations filed legal briefs opposing the bill, arguing that it harms consumers by stopping online providers from creating healthy online communities, restricts Floridians’ expression, and puts domestic violence and cyberstalking victims at risk of serious harm.
