Photo by Win McNamee/ Staff ( Getty images )On Wednesday, a federal judge issued a preliminary order against a Florida law which would have penalized social media companies $250,000 per day for banning candidates. The law was likely to violate the first amendment rights of tech companies.AdvertisementThe law was passed by Florida's Republican-led legislature in the spring. It was inspired by Twitter, and other platforms, who decided to ban Donald Trump from posting last year after he accidentally caused a riot at Capitol in January 2021. The law states that social media platforms cannot permanently remove or ban candidates for office. However, it allows for exceptions for suspensions up to 14 days and gives platforms the right to review and remove any posts found to be violating the terms of service.Social media companies could be fined $250,000 per day for banning candidates from statewide elections. They would also face $25,000 per day penalties from the state elections commission for banning candidates. Individuals could bring lawsuits against them.Robert Hinkle, U.S. District Judge, said that he was against the broad nature of the law, which was due to take effect on Thursday. He said, "This is an instance where you burn the house to roast the pig."Hinkle explained that the legislation at issue was an attempt to limit social-media providers that were too big and too free, It is not legal for government to interfere with the free flow of ideas between private speakers. It is clear that the legislation is content-based and must be closely scrutinized, regardless of its motivation.He stated that the law as it stands would require platforms to host speech that is not in compliance with their standards speech and prohibit providers from speaking as they would otherwise.Tech companies generally have the First Amendment right to publish what they want without government interference.
