- A Florida senator has submitted a bill that would require anyone who blogs about DeSantis to register with the state.
- SB 1316 mandates that bloggers must register within five days of their first post.
- The proposed legislation has not yet been put to a vote, and it is unclear whether DeSantis supports it.
A new bill introduced in Florida will require any blogger who writes about Gov. Ron DeSantis to register with the state.
The bill was introduced in the Florida Senate on February 28 by GOP lawmaker Jason Brodeur. SB 1316 requires any blogger who writes about DeSantis – and is paid for their work – to register with the state ethics commission or the Florida Office of Legislative Services. They must do this within five days of their first post.
Bloggers also must register with the state if they write anything about Florida’s lieutenant governor, a cabinet official, or any other member of the Florida legislature, per the bill.
SB 1316 would require bloggers to submit monthly reports about their work when they write about elected officials, including how much they were paid for their articles, rounded to the nearest $10. , and the name of the “individual or entity” paying them.
Writers who don’t file their reports on time should be fined $25 a day, the bill proposes. A blogger can be fined a maximum of $2,500, the bill reads.
Brodeur’s proposed law does not appear to apply to news organizations but instead targets individual bloggers who write about DeSantis and other officials.
The proposed legislation has not yet been put to a vote. It’s unclear whether DeSantis personally supports Brodeur’s bill.
Brodeur told the website Florida Politics that he believes “paid bloggers are lobbyists who write instead of talk.”
Ron Kuby, a New York lawyer who specializes in free speech, told NBC News that Brodeur’s proposal would violate the First Amendment.
“We don’t register reporters. People who write are not forced to register,” Kuby told NBC News.
The suggestion that more restrictions be placed on people writing about DeSantis directly contradicts the governor’s message that Florida should have as much freedom as possible. In July, Insider spotted a fundraising page from DeSantis where he was selling a gold “Freedom Team Membership Card.”
Representatives for Brodeur and DeSantis did not immediately respond to Insider’s requests for comment.
The ACLU of Florida, the First Amendment Foundation, and the Marion B. Brechner First Amendment Project at the University of Florida did not immediately respond to Insider’s requests for comment.