Chaos and disaster.
Steve Benen seems a bit puzzled over Republican leadership outcry over social media platforms, which are private companies protected by the 1st Amendment, banning certain conservative figures from using those platforms due to policy violations – advocacy of false information, violence, that sort of thing. In the context of a newly signed Florida law which forbids companies from banning users on pain of large fines – yes, that sounds like a DOA law to me, too – he concludes:
With this in mind, lawsuits challenging [Governor DeSantis’ (R-FL)] new measure are inevitable, and the policy is likely to struggle in the courts. That said, the fact that Florida Republicans invested time, energy, and resources into such an initiative says a great deal about the party’s weird preoccupation with conspiracy theories surrounding Big Tech. [Maddowblog]
Except it’s not weird. Sure, I’ll stipulate to this:
Right off the bat, there’s a serious flaw in DeSantis’ premise: As NBC News’ report explained, “Research on social media has frequently shown … that conservative politicians and websites can be so effective on social media that they often dominate measures such as Facebook’s ranking of top links. Facebook has also relaxed its rules so that conservative pages are not penalized for violations.”
But it’s an irrelevancy. The Republicans, who are watching their base shrink through demographic attrition and disgust while refusing to reform their message or themselves, have to continue to dominate those rankings. This is because the social media platforms are the primary means for communicating cheaply and effectively with their base. Sure, email and mass mailings can be used, but neither is as good as a shared social media experience, because they inherently have the network effect: first people learn about the latest liberal outrage, and then they can talk about it among themselves, which gets them even more stirred up.
This is all about keeping the emotions roiling, and social media has no equal when it comes to that.
The Republicans cannot continue to stir the pot if the tech companies providing these platforms keep banning people and organizations who provide the fuel for the fires. DeSantis is trying to cut the herd off at the pass by passing and signing this law, warning Big Social Media to lay off enforcement of their own rules.
And does it have a chance?
DeSantis may think so, not based on sophisticated legal analysis but on the composition of SCOTUS: he may be banking on ideological loyalty saving his bacon.
But while it’s dangerous to bet on SCOTUS – I wouldn’t put any money into a betting pool connected to any particular decision by them – my suspicion is that SCOTUS would reject this law, and probably 9-0.
But let’s hope that the Federal Courts rebuff this law with such snap that the Florida GOP becomes dispirited.
