https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/pol...stat-rcna73191
Now to qualify the subject, this seems to be a pattern of behavior from Republicans in the Florida Legislature and governor Ron DeSantis. Some links to other recent examples where they were found to have violated the First Amendment -A Republican state senator in Florida has introduced a bill that, if passed, would require bloggers who write about Gov. Ron DeSantis, his cabinet or state legislators to register with the state.
Sen. Jason Brodeur's bill, entitled "Information Dissemination," would also require bloggers to disclose who's paying them for their posts on certain elected officials, and how much.
"If a blogger posts to a blog about an elected state officer and receives, or will receive, compensation for that post, the blogger must register" with the appropriate office within five days of the post, the proposed legislation says.
It defines "elected state officer" as "the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, a Cabinet officer, or any member of the Legislature."
Failing to register would result in a fine of $25 a day, and the penalty would be capped at $2,500 per posting, NBC affiliate WFLA of Tampa reported.
The bill says the bloggers' reports to the state "must include" the "individual or entity that compensated the blogger for the blog post, and "the amount of compensation received from the individual or entity."
The bill defines a blog as "a website or webpage that hosts any blogger and is frequently updated with opinion, commentary, or business content," but says the "term does not include the website of a newspaper or other similar publication."
DeSantis's office did not respond to a request for comment late Thursday for his position on the bill.
Brodeur did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Thursday, but told the website Florida Politics, which first reported on the bill, that “Paid bloggers are lobbyists who write instead of talk. They both are professional electioneers. If lobbyists have to register and report, why shouldn’t paid bloggers?”
Ron Kuby, a First Amendment lawyer in New York, said the law would not survive a court challenge if passed.
"It's hard to imagine a proposal that would be more violative of the First Amendment," Kuby said. "We don't register journalists. People who write cannot be forced to register."
https://floridaphoenix.com/2022/08/1...stop-woke-act/
https://www.axios.com/2023/01/21/ron...-warren-ruling
https://www.npr.org/2022/05/23/11008...ional-desantis
https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/ne...rs-2021-09-09/
Each of those is a link to a different ruling against Florida on First Amendment grounds in the past 3-4 years. That's an astounding number of cases that I don't think any other state can claim to have close to that number of losses on First Amendment grounds.
This is beyond DeSantis specifically targeting Disney in apparent, and very obvious, retaliation. This is beyond DeSantis's efforts to fundamentally reshape education in Florida and censor educators in favor of installing "patriotic" propagandists who will promote the political interests of the Republican party rather than educate children.
What's going on in Florida that there seems to be such disdain and contempt for Freedom of Speech? Why on earth should bloggers have to register with the state to cover political figures? Why should they, and only they, as private employees have to register with show who pays them beyond what is already legally required for a business to operate?
This seems like a very fucking obvious attack on the First Amendment and a very clear intention to chill medias right to free speech. I'm curious why the rest of the Republican party who continue to claim they are such proponents of the First Amendment, are silent on the issue rather than aghast with what their fellow party member is proposing, and what's generally going on in Florida.
The First Amendment is the same that protects their religious freedoms, and while I don't want to discuss religion, I'd hope a party very concerned with that aspect of the Amendment as they claim to be would be concerned with the rest of it, too. And not just the part they like.