Fla. Lawmakers Let Privacy Bill Die, OK Social Media Rules

Florida’s comprehensive privacy bill failed Friday amid disagreement over a private right of action. HB-969 sponsor Rep. Fiona McFarland (R) looks “forward to continuing the good work on this complicated issue in the next session,” she wrote. Legislators passed SB-7072 Thursday to make it unlawful for social media sites -- other than theme park owners -- to deplatform political candidates. It requires sites to be transparent about policing users.

The House didn’t consider HB-969 on the final day of session. The Senate voted 29-11 Thursday to pass it after stripping the ability for individuals to file suits (see 2104290037). The state attorney general would have instead enforced the bill. McFarland earlier stood by keeping the right in the House-passed version (see 2104200066). Disagreement over private suits was one reason Washington state's privacy bill failed last week (see 2104260061).

“We started an important conversation about data privacy for Floridians, and took strong first steps toward common-sense changes,” McFarland said Friday. “Each session there are dozens of important issues that we debate and consider in a short 60-day window. This is the nature of the legislative process.”

Privacy legislation came close to passing its first red state, said Shook Hardy privacy attorney Alfred Saikali in an interview. “All it would have taken was for the House to say, 'We’re good with the Senate version.'” It shows that the model for GOP states is to include aggressive consumer rights without letting people sue, Saikali said. “This comes down to the fact that the speaker of the House is known to be closely tied to the plaintiffs’ bar, and he didn’t want to see a law that went into effect without a private right of action.” House Speaker Chris Sprowls (R) is a former trial lawyer. He didn't comment.

The bill was problematic for businesses, said Computer & Communications Industry Association President Matt Schruers. “While grounded in important principles for the protection of individual privacy,” HB-969 “threatened to create a complex regulatory maze that would have uniquely burdened small and medium Floridian businesses struggling to recover from the public health crisis,” he said. “We look forward to providing input as lawmakers seek to enact clear, strong, and operationalizable privacy rights for consumers and duties for the responsible treatment of data.”

Florida lawmakers seemed to want "to do something on privacy without a clear vision of what that something was,” said Common Sense Director-State Advocacy Joseph Jerome in a statement. “The dueling House and Senate bills were a plug-and-play of different privacy provisions, some good and some bad. In the end, they ran out of time and instead of working on those provisions, we saw things break down over enforcement.”

Florida senators had passed a bill 23-17 to regulate social media, tweaking the definition of social media platform in SB-7072 to exempt platforms operated by any company that “owns and operates a theme park or entertainment complex.” The House then concurred and passed the bill 77-38. It goes next to Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who didn’t comment Friday.

“The Florida Legislature has decided to put politics over policy," said Internet Association Senior Vice President-State Government Affairs Robert Callahan. "The bill is unconstitutional, arbitrarily exempts large Florida-based corporations, and will hurt the citizens of the state.”

DeSantis should veto SB-7072, said CCIA’s Schruers. “Lawsuits and jackpot judgments are a prescription for promoting plaintiffs’ litigation, not free speech. This bill will result in even fewer options for users to express themselves online. Even when a frivolous lawsuit is tossed out, litigation costs run between five and six figures.”

“Florida's unconstitutional content moderation bill is still bad, but congrats I guess to the Disney lobbyists for getting themselves exempted,” tweeted Chamber of Progress CEO Adam Kovacevich, referencing the amendment exempting Florida theme park owners. Disney didn’t comment. Comcast, which owns Universal’s Orlando theme parks, declined to comment.