Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Ron DeSantis becomes first Republican governor to unveil legislation cracking down on Big Tech

Transcript

Ron DeSantis becomes first Republican governor to unveil legislation cracking down on Big Tech · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: There is finally a governor that has decided to stand
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: up to big tech. With Washington totally gone to the socialists,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: there is going to be no help there on many, many,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: many issues. And what governors are starting to understand, what
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: they're starting to figure out, is you're pretty powerful. You
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: actually have the right to stand up for your citizens,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: to protect your citizens and to fight back instead of
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: just saying, oh, well, Washington's doing its thing. And now
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: we're seeing this change in a major way. We're seeing
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: this change in a very very very very very significant way.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Governor de Santists is the first one to really go
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: all in. Governor Desantists has decided that his citizens deserve
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: to have someone stand up for them when it comes
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: to the big tech attacks. Governor Desantists has decided he's
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: not going to just let Washington and big tech in
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: Silicon Valley silence the citizens in his state. So far,
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: it's pretty darned brilliant what he's doing so far. It's
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: actually extremely brilliant what he's decided to do. He's keeping
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: it simple, but he's doing it. And every other conservative
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: governor in the country, forget conservative, every other governor in
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: the country that believes in freedom of speech, believes in
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: freedom of expression, should be paying attention to what Governor
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: Desantists is doing. Now. Of course, the media has immediately
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: attack Governor Desantists on this, right. I mean, I mean
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: it was like instant attack on Governor DeSantis, attacking him, saying, oh, well,
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: he's just doing this, playing this up for the media.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: He's just doing this because he must be trying to
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: run for president in twenty twenty four or four years
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: from now. By the way, if Governor Desantist did decide
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: to run for president, I'd be all about it. I'd
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: want to listen to more of what he has to say,
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: because the guy seems to be listening to the people
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: and making decisions based on common sense, whether it be
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: from the COVID nineteen lockdowns, not you know, taking tons
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: of heat for not locking down his state. And yes,
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: they've had fewer people dying Florida than they did in
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: New York, where they've had extreme lockdowns. Those are things
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: that I like about him. But what he said in
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: this announcement is that we're not just going to let
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: these big tech tyrants decide what they're going to do.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: We're not going to let them manipulate our lives silence us.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: Not in my state, and my state's pretty important. It's
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: a pretty big states. It's got a lot of citizens,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: and if you want to operate here, then you better
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: operate under the rules of freedom. I want you to
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: hear in this announcement as governed of Santists at the
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: Florida State House announced this yesterday and he played it
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: out very clearly why he believes. As he said in
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: his message, this message is loud and clear when it
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: comes to elections in Florida, big tech should stay out
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: of it. Here is Governor de Santis in his own words,
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: and every other governor in America should pay attention to
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: what he's doing. The ends should have the privacy of
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: their data and personal information protected, their ability to access
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: and participate in online platforms protected, and their ability to
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: participate in elections free from interference from big tech protected.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: But began as a group of upstar technology companies from
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: the West Coast, since transformed into an industry of monopoly
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: communications platforms that monitor, influence, and control the flow of
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: information in our country and among our citizens. And they
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: do that to an extent. Hitherto unimaginable. At the turn
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: of the twenty first century, online technology presented tools to
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: liberate Americans from reliance on distrusted, legacy media outlets. A
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: social media proliferated over the past decade. Citizens could directly
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: connect with large numbers of people and could cut out
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: corporate media outlets entirely. Over the years, however, these platforms
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: have changed from neutral platforms that provided Americans with the
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: freedom to speak to enforcers of preferred narratives. Consequently, these
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: platforms have played an increasingly decisive role in elections and
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: have negatively impacted Americans who dissent from orthodoxies favored by
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: the big tech cartel. We have seen the power of
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: their censorship over individuals and organizations, including what I believe
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: is clear viewpoint discrimination, and as these companies have grown
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: and their influence expanded, Big Tech has come to look
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: more like Big Brother with each passing day. But this
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: is twenty twenty one, not nineteen eighty four, and this
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: is real life, not George Orwell's fick. These companies exert
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: monopoly power over a centrally important forum of public discourse
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: and the access of information that Floridians rely on. Used
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: to be. The consumers were trusted to make their own
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: decisions about what information to consume, about which leaders to
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: quote follow, about what news to watch. Now those decisions
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: are increasingly made by nameless, faceless boards of censors. They
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: even have a name, euphemistically called content moderators. And we're
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: told that these are private companies and that those who
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: disagree with their decisions to regulate content and even suppress
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: content can simply choose other services. Well, when two point
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: eight million Americans chose to download the application Parlor and
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: share information with friends, family, and colleagues, what was the
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: result of that canceled by Amazon, Google, and Apple? What
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: about eighty eight million Americans who chose to quote follow
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: President Donald Trump? Sorry, content moderators on Twitter pulled the plug,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: as did a different set of quote moderators at Facebook.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: This is the case even though leaders like Ayatollahamni have
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: been permitted to use these platforms to do things like
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: call for the destruction of Israel and the elimination of Jews.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: Core issue here is this, our consumers going to have
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: the choice to consume the information they choose, or oligarchs
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: in Silicon Valley going to make those choices for us.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: No group of people should exercise such power, especially not
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: tech billionaires in northern California. If I had to choose,
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: I'd rather be governed by the first fifty names in
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: the Tallahassee phone book than the CEOs of big tech companies.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: You don't like parlor, then don't read it. Let's not
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: have those choices made for us, or before long we
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: will have nothing more than someone else's choices imposed upon
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: us by a bunch of monopolies whose core business is
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: to advertising. These behaviors are concerning to me, as I
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: know they are concerning to many Floridians. It's high time
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: that we step up to the plate to ensure the
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: protection of the people and their rights. And I'm committed
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: to addressing what may be one of the most pervasive
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: threats to American self government in the twenty first century
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: because I believe in individual rights, privacy rights, and property rights.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: Because I trust Floridians to choose which content to consume
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: in which to ignore, and because I want to preserve
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: Florida's rich, diverse public discourse and not allow corporate owned
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: narrative approve outlets to dominate our voices. Now Fortunately, I'm
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: not alone in this fight, and I'm glad to work
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: with the Speaker of the House and other legislative leaders
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: as we take on these issues on behalf of the
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: people of Florida. As we work together, we're united under
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: core beliefs and the sacredness of one's voice, one's privacy,
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: and the protection they deserve in our system of government.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: Privacy rights are really property rights. And just like big
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: tech can't rummage through your dresser draw they also aren't
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: entitled to track your every move. You notice what the
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: santists is saying right now, and this is why so
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: many governors need to pay attention to the scientists. He's
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: not talking about conservative liberally, He's talking about your actual
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: privacy rights. He's talking about the right for these companies
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: to look at everything you do and then sell your
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: information the highest bidder. And that is not okay because
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: this is how they make billions, It's how they control
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: every ad you see on your platforms. This is what
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: makes them so powerful, this is what makes them like oligarchs.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: And he's right, these companies can't come in your house
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: and rummage through your mail, rummage through your dress or drawer.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: Go into your closet and see what you're buyings. They
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: can then tell people how to market to you. So
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: why can they do it on your computer all day
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: long and your phone all day long? This No one
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: listening right now should think of this as a Republican v.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: Democrat thing. This should be about privacy and all of
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: our privacy against these big tech tyrants that have way
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: too much power and control over our lives and the
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: information that they basically steal from you and sell to
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: the highest bidder that you don't get to say so
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: in Governor to Santests is doing what other governors need
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: to do. He's protecting your privacy. He's taking away the
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: financial power of these big tech companies to sell your
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: information to rummagster your life and to sell it to
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: the highest bidder without you really even knowing what's going on.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: What Governor de Santist is saying to these big tech companies,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: you think you can come after us politically, forget that.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: We're going to talk about you, not politically, right. We're
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: going to talk about what you're doing with our information,
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: and we're gonna hold you accountable for what you're doing
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: with our information. We're not going to let you just
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: sell it to anybody you want to and think that
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: we're just going to look the other way. Any longer
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: you guys are out of control, We're going to rain
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: you in. And if you want to have a customer
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: base in Florida, one of the highliest, highliest populated states
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: in America, then you're gonna have to play by a
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: very different set of rules. You're gonna have to play
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: by a set of rules that protect all the people
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: in Florida, not just some. Now, everything that you just
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: talked about so far, it is really not political, right.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: This isn't like I We're gonna come after you because
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: of politics. No, No, we're gonna stop the way that
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: you wore out our information from our cell phones and
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: from our computers, Governor de Santis said just a second ago,
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: as I was playing this for you, as he put it,
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: you don't let these people come into your room and
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: rummage through your drawers, right Like, you can't do that,
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: So why can you do it on my phone on
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: my computer? Or beliefs and the sacredness of one's voice,
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: one's privacy and the protection they deserve in our system
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: of government, pivous rights are really property rights. And just
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: like big tech can't rummage through your dress or drawers,
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: they also aren't entitled to track your every move. You know,
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: someone once summed it up to me this way. When
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: I invite you into my house and say have a seat,
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: I don't mean you can leave with my couch. Our
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: founding fathers were deliberate in the enshrinement of our rights,
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: and the Constitution ensure that we the people were guaranteed
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: protection against those wishing to violate our rights. Ironically, early
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: founders were most concerned with the tyranny of government and
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: deciding these rights. But today the big tech oligarchy has
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: in many ways become a clear and more present danger
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: to the restriction of the right to free speech than
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: the government itself. And certainly, if you go back and
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: look at the monopolies at the turn of the twentieth century,
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: these current big tech monopolies are exerting power far far
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: more pervasive than standard oil ever did. Now these issues
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: are so important because of big tech pervasiveness and near
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: limitless in our society, with billions of monthly users and
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: the vastness of information exchange. Not only these companies control
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: the flow of information they are selling it as well.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: This is how that you think the business works. They
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: take consumer data sell it for advertising, specifically more than
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: two hundred billion dollars worth of advertising in a given year.
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: And that's not really innovation. That's just a different form
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: of Madison Avenue. Now, since its exception, Big Tech has
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: experienced rapid and extraordinary growth. It's passed to its path
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: to expansion bore willingness to engage in a host of
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: savvy practices to advance profit while compromising the protection of consumers.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: Not only do Floridians share with these platforms their lives, thoughts, hopes,
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: and stories, but also some of their most intimate personal information.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: But what most folks don't realize is that all these
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: companies are taking that information, regardless of its sensitivity, and
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: selling it to whoever is willing to pay the highest price.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: They've even created complex markets and exchanges for the sale
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: of Floridians information, all the while claiming to never sell
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: user information. Florida is not going to be tolerating that
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: Florida consumers deserve protection for their privacy. With the help
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: of our legislative partners, we're going to stand together in
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: support of Floridians and put a stop to big text
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: practice of praying on consumers your privacy is important. We
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: also are going to address your privacy is importantly. And
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: again this is where other governors need to pay attention.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: Other governors need to understand what Governor does sand is
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: saying we are going to stand up for you. The
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: citizens we're going to stand up for you are constituents.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: These companies have been saying and lying to you for
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: years that they don't sell your information the highest bidder.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: We now know for a fact that's exactly what they
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: do every day on the web. They sell everything, virtually
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: everything that you've ever sent out into the world searched
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: on their search engines. They're even reading your emails. A
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: lot of people don't realize this. If you send a
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: link in Facebook Messenger for a product, if you send
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: a link in an email to a product, you will
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: then be spammed. And a lot of you probably notice
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: this with that exact product or products related to it
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: in your advertising. When you start searching the web after that,
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: or when you're on social media sites like Facebook, there
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: is when you hit that button to forward a product
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: or to forward an article about a product, or ford
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: an article about a resort. They then go and say, hey, there,
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: this person is looking to go on a vacation to Mexico.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: You should advertise your resort to them. How valuable is
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: that information? When you do something as simple as searching
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: for a flight, then what happens? All the airlines start
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: coming after your business for that exact flight. If you
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: search a hotel in a certain city, every ad afterwards
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: is for hotels in that city. Same with rental cars,
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: same with restaurants, same with office supplies. The list goes
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: on and on and on and on and on. And
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: what Governor de Santist is saying, first and foremost is
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: not in our state any longer. You guys are way
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: too invasive. You've lied to the American consumer. You've lied
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: to these to us, to the people saying we never
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: sell your information, when that is exactly what you do,
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: and you do it billions of times a day. The
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: game's over in our state. You can't do this now.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: They may be able to do in other states. And
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: there's gonna be other states. You're gonna know who's really
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: in favor of protecting your freedom and who's being controlled
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: by big tech by which states do not act. Governor
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: De Santist is the first, and there should be dozens
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: and dozens of states that follow. There may not be.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: And this is why we need to be looking at
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: this and asking real questions about this. We need to
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: be asking tough questions of every governor. Why are you
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: not following suit, Why are you not organizing and doing
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: the same thing. Why are you not advocating for our protections.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: These are the questions that need to be asked. These
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: are the important questions that need to be discussed. Now,
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: this isn't all that Governor de Santist did. This was
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: part one of his plan. Part two is an extremely
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: important aspect of his plan. The other part of this
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: plan that he's talking about, and again we all need
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: to be taking notes on this, because this is how
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: we are going to beat big tech, if we're going
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: to survive them, if we're going to stand up to them.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: His second part of his plan is this. Now, these
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: network of Silicon Valley CEOs wield extraordinary power to the
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: point of holistically controlling the flow of vast swaths of
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: information in our country. No matter of hours, a business
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: can be dismantled, a community of friends and colleagues, canceled,
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: and even a sitting president of the United States Silence
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: are their own admissions. Social media companies view themselves as
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: a new public square and are happy to market themselves
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: as platforms of global, regional, and local connectivity. Make no mistake,
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: they are nothing more than advertising conglomerates. And I'm not
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: interested in handing over the key so the public square
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: to a bunch of companies whose economic interests are not
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: aligned with the public interest. When it comes to the
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: rightful criticism for their editing and manipulation of the public square,
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: big tech executives flee to shelter themselves from accountability as
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: anything but a public forum, and that they have the
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: hutzpah the nerve who insist on broad liability protection heads
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: they win, pails, we lose. And worse yet, a faceless
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: and nameless group of tech employees that these companies now
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: wheeled tremendous power to censor speech and enforce their viewpoint
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: on political discourse upon the general public. If George Orwell
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: had thought of it, he would have loved the term
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: content moderation. Consequences of big tech censorship are felt far
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: and wide. Take for example, Big TeX's approach to censoring
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: criticism of pseudoscientific lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic. By the way,
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: Governor to Scantists and what he's doing now, And you
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: notice the first thing he went for when explaining his
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: big Tech move is to show the example of COVID nineteen. Right,
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: you must agree with our science, you must agree with
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: what we tell you. We will immediately put misinformation or
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: misleading or silence or shut you down if you write anything,
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: put anything up, or debate anything about COVID that we
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: believe is not correct. And Governor de Santists in Florida
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: was a huge victim of this propaganda, of this silencing.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: They were a massive victim of this because the left
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: attack Governor de Santists, And the reason why they attacked
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: him is because he was saying no to what New
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: York and these other liberals were doing, saying not in
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: my state we're going to do this, We're not going
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: to do it this way. One of the examples that
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: he is talking about is COVID nineteen. COVID nineteen, he
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: was attacked by big tech. He understands how insane big
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: tech has gotten, how out of control they've gotten because
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: big Tech allowed for his state to be just assaulted online,
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: because he refused to bow to the liberals, those that said,
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: you got to shut down everything, the economy schools, all
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: of it, and all the things they did in New
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: York that didn't work, all the things in New Jersey
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: they did that didn't work, all the things they did
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: in Baltimore that didn't work, all the things they did
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: in Minneapolis that didn't work, all the things they did
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: in San Francisco that didn't work. In la that didn't work.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: In California as a state that didn't work, which is
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: why they're recalling their governor now in California. You know,
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: New York City is a great example. Governor Cuomo had
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: time to write a book about how great his response
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: to COVID was, when in fact they were under reported
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: the number of dead and nursing homes to cover up
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: how bad their decision making was. And when talking about
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: those desks, what did he say, whether a person died
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: in a nursing home or a hospital, who cares they died.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: That's what the response from Governor Cuomo was. His exact words.
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: So Governor de Santes dealt with big tech. Remember, you
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: couldn't even write the word hydroxy chlora quim without being
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: censored on Twitter and Facebook. You couldn't ask questions about
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: COVID nineteen vaccines or the effectiveness of wearing a mask
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: without someone shutting you down and silencing. You couldn't even
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: do that. Not allowed to ask questions, not allowed to
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: ask any basic questions. Nope, you've just got to go
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: with what we tell you can and cannot say. And
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: Governor de Santis was ridiculed and mocked, and he was
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: told and the media said that people were dying because
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: of the decisions that he made, which wasn't true. That
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: he was putting people at lists, that people were going
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: to die because of him, which again was not true,
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: wasn't even close to being accurate, wasn't even close to
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: being true. Here is more of Governor to santists talking
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: about how we're going to random big tech and dissension
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: when it comes to things like COVID nineteen, which you
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: should be able to ask questions. You should be able
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: to ask a question or talk about hydroxy court quinn
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: without being silenced forever, and worse yet, a faceless and
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: nameless group of tech. Employees at these companies now wheeled
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: tremendous power to censor speech and enforce their viewpoint on
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: political discourse upon the general public. If George Orwell had
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: thought of it, he would have loved the term content moderation.
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: Consequences of big tech censorship are felt far and wide.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: Take for example, Big tex approach to censoring criticism of
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: pseudo scientific lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic. Well these lockdowns
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: were almost universally rejected in pre COVID pandemic preparedness plans.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: Lockdowns at the time of the pandemic were favored by
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: the quote narrative, and so in the name of quote science,
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: articles and posts warning against lockdowns were taken down and censored.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: The result has been the destruction of millions of lives
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: across America, as well as increased deaths from suicide, substance abuse,
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: and despair, without any corresponding benefit in COVID mortality. Shouldn't
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: such monumental policy questions have received a full, open and
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: robust debate. Social media platforms have become among the most
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: powerful mechanism for a private citizen to make his or
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: her voice heard. As incumbent upon us to ensure those
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: voices are not capriciously and vindictively targeted. And the worst part,
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: they change the rules constantly based on whichever whatever they
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: deem to be politically correct at any given point in time.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: These rules and standards are often change without the knowledge
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: of their users, moving the goalposts on Floridians and others
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: who use these open forums for discourse and as a
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: source for information. When a social media company applies these
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: standards unequally on users, this is discrimination, pure and simple,
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: and you imagine tolerating this kind of behavior in banking,
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: or in healthcare, or in other industries. So today we
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: announced during this legislative session that we will seek to
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: do the following ensure that Floridians are safeguarded against these
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: practices from technology companies by requiring proper notice and disclosure
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: of these changes to the standards and full disclosure of
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: any actions taken against a user for violating the standards.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: We'll also seek to prevent these platforms from rapidly changing
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: these standards and applying them unequally against users. Will also
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: require that users provided the option to opt out of
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: the various algorithms these platforms used to steer content or
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: in many cases, suppress content from the view of other users.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: But these provisions are of no use without enforcement, and
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: we will provide recourse for Floridians, both by enabling a
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: user to bring a cause of action against the technology
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: company for violating these requirements of Florida law and empowering
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: the Attorney General to bring action against the technology company
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: for violations of these requirements under Florida's Unfair and Deceptive
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: Trade Practices Act. We've also seen the breath of big
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: tech's influence on campaigns and elections. While there wasn't a
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: state in the Union that ran a better election than
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: Florida last year, we still saw on a national scale
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: how articles, candidates, and content had the thumb prints of
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: big tech executives all over them. You can look no
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: further than the last several months of the election, as coordinated,
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: calculated efforts were undertaken to advance and increasingly evident political
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: agenda of the big tech companies. The problem is these
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: companies are playing a significant role in the advancement of
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: issues and candidates, but do so without recording many of
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: their efforts for what they are political contributions. He's right,
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: He's absolutely right. That's why he's doing what he's doing.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: That's why Governor Desantists is having to do these things.
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: You look at the meat in the potatoes of what
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: is in this bill, and I want to just give
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: you a quick recap of it. Okay, He says, Big
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: Tech has come to look more like Big Brother with
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: each passing day, accusing the tech companies holding monopoly power
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: over a centrally important part of your life, your private information.
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: He then said, nameless and faceless boards of sensors are
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: violating the free speech rights of Floridians, and big tech
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: is not until to track your every move. He's right,
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: he said. Our founding fathers were deliberate in the enshrinement
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: of our rights in the Constitution to ensure that we
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: the people were guaranteed protections against those which in deviolates
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: our rights. And that's exactly what big tech is doing
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: right now, he said. Ironically, our early founding fathers, early
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: founders were most concerned about the tyranny of the government
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: in deciding these rights. But today big tech oligarchs have
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: in many ways become a clear and more present danger
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: to the restrictions of the rights to free speech than
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: the government itself. And he's also right, Silicon Valley CEOs
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: have extraordinary power to point the control of ideas, the
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: flows of information in our country. In a matter of hours,
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: a business can be dismantled, a community of friends and
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: colleagues can be canceled, and even the sitting president of
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: the United States of America can be silenced by their
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: own emissions. He says, social media companies view themselves as
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: platforms of global, regional, and local connectivity. Make no mistake,
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: they are nothing more than advertising conglomerates. He said, I'm
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: not interested in handing over the keys the public square
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: to a bunch of companies whose economic interests are not
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: aligned with public interests. So this new legislative proposal that
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: they are going to attempt to pass to crack down
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: on unfair practices by big tech company include this requiring
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: social media platforms to give proper notice and disclosure of
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: changes to their content standards or terms of service, and
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: provide full disclosure of any action taking against a user
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: for violating their standards. Number two. He wants to prevent
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: social media platforms from rapidly changing these standards and applying
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: them unequally. Against users based on their political ideals. Three
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: Provide users the options to opt out of the various
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: algorithms these platforms use to steer content or suppress content
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: from the views of others. In other words, you can
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: opt out saying no, no no, you're not gonna give me
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: what you want me to see. I'm gonna I'm gonna
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: see organically what I've chosen to follow and like and
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: look at. You're not gonna send me a message that
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: you believe I need to be in favor of. Provide
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: users the ability to bring lawsuits against tech companies and
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: empower the Florida Attorney General to bring actions against a
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: tech company for violating these requirements under federal under Florida's
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act. You know this is
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: all about these algorithms. Quote. If a tech company uses
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: algorithms to suppress or prioritize the access of any content
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: related to a political cause or candidate on the ballot,
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: the company will face daily finds. That's how you rain
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: these guys in. You stick it to them in their pocketbooks,
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: and they have nothing to, by the way, worry about
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: if they're not breaking the rules, if they're not breaking
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: the rules. If they're not deliberately trying to influence elections,
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: if they're not deliberately trying to silence conservative viewpoints, then
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: big Tech should have no issue going along with us
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: because it means that they are being honest and authentic
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: and organic. But if they are, then here's your sign.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: If they are, here's your sign. By the way, if
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: you want to keep up with us outside of big Tech,
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: make sure you hey, listen to our podcasts every day
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: and be text us right now. We're making sure that
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: we can keep up with you outside of this crazy
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: world a big text. So if they decide to cancel us,
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: all you have to do is send us a text
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: message to our phone number. Our phone number is easy
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: five five four three three, So all you gotta do
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: just send us a text message to our phone number
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: like you'd send a normal text message. Our phone numbers
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: five five four three three, and then you're gonna send
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: the word Ben, just like you would say what do
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: you want for dinner? Just type the word Ben and
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: hit send. That's all you have to do, so do
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: it right now so we can always keep up with you,
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: all right, See you back here tomorrow on our podcast
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: and you can go backwards and listen to other podcasts
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: as well.