Florida bill would fine social media platforms for banning politicians— with exemption for Disney

It is also rife for legal challenge from tech companies, who could cite the First Amendment in court. Just as private media companies cannot be forced to publish speech they oppose, social media companies reserve the same rights. Steve DelBianco, the CEO of advocacy organization NetChoice, testified against the bill in April, saying, “Imagine if the government required a church to allow user-created comments or third-party advertisements promoting abortion on its social media page. Just as that would violate the First Amendment, so too does this, since it would similarly force social media platforms to host content they otherwise would not allow.” First Amendment law professor Howard Wasserman agreed, telling the Miami New Times, “There’s no way they could enforce it. It’s not even close. Twitter and Facebook and all these are private. They have a right to decide who gets on and off their platform.”