FL Blogging Bill Says Political Writers Should Register With State

FLORIDA — A proposed bill takes aim at Florida’s political bloggers writing about Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state leaders and officials.

If Senate Bill 1316, titled “Information Dissemination,” submitted by state Sen. Jason Brodeur (R-Lake Mary) passes, bloggers would be required to register with the state’s Office of Legislative Services or the Commission on Ethics.

“If a blogger posts to a blog about an elected state officer and receives, or will receive, compensation for that post, the blogger must register with the appropriate office … within 5 days after the first post by the blogger which mentions an elected state officer,” Brodeur’s proposed bill reads.

According to the bill, “elected state officer” refers to the governor lieutenant governor, cabinet officer or any member of the state legislature.

The proposed bill also defines “blog” as “a website or webpage that hosts any blogger and is frequently updated with opinion, commentary or business content.”

The law would exclude newspapers and similar publications.

Ron Kuby, a lawyer in New York specializing in free speech, told NBC News the blogger bill would violate the First Amendment. "We don't register journalists. People who write cannot be forced to register," Kuby said.

The bill also calls for bloggers to submit monthly reports to the state for each month they publish new posts, according to the bill. This report should include who hired them to write the post and how much they were paid. They can be fined $25 per day if their report is late, with a maximum fine of $2,500 for each report.

Brodeur told Florida Politics, “Paid bloggers are lobbyists who write instead of talk. They both are professional electioneers. If lobbyists have to register and report, why shouldn’t paid bloggers?”

Free speech advocates and journalists across the political spectrum denounced the bill, the New York Post said.

Sarah Rumpf, an Orlando-based contributing editor at Mediaite, posted an image of the Constitution, writing: “Here’s my documentation needed to write about DeSantis, [state Attorney General Ashley] Moody, Brodeur, or any other elected official. I’m not filing any ‘registration’ or reporting my salary to Tallahassee. Go step on all the Legos with this unconstitutional nonsense.”

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression issued a statement calling the proposal “an affront to the First Amendment and our national commitment to freedom of the press.

"It is difficult to imagine a legislative proposal more fundamentally at odds with our nation’s founding spirit than requiring citizens and journalists to register their publications with the government under pain of fines," FIRE added.