Tech companies would no longer be able to ban political candidates, and they would have to provide opt-outs of content filters for citizens of Florida if new measures by Governor Ron DeSantis are enacted.
“The core issue here is this: are consumers going to have the choice to consume the information they choose or are oligarchs in Silicon Valley going to make those choices for us?” DeSantis said in a speech announcing the proposed regulations. “No group of people should exercise such power, especially not tech billionaires in Northern California.”
This past October, a 16-month congressional investigation determined that Big Tech companies held “monopoly power” in key business segments and abused their marketplace dominance to profit and protect themselves from political scrutiny and regulation. But with the new Biden administration saturated with tech operatives and advocates, it appears doubtful the Justice Department will act on the 450-page report, compiled by the House Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel. The report concluded that there was “significant evidence” showing anticompetitive conduct by Apple, Google, Amazon, Facebook, and others, which stifled consumer choice and weakened democracy.
