Bill to loosen media protections, compel outlets to remove online content advances in Senate

TALLAHASSEE, FLA. 1/4/23-Sen. Corey Simon, R-Tallahassee, chairs his first meeting of the Senate Education Pre-K-12 Committee, Wednesday at the Capitol in Tallahassee. COLIN HACKLEY PHOTO

Under a bill advancing in the Legislature’s upper chamber, media outlets would have to remove false, defamatory, or outdated reports from their websites.

Proponents of the measure say it’s a needed update to legal standards that did not contemplate the internet’s ubiquity.

Critics contend it will do far more harm than good.

On Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 8-2 for SB 752, Florida’s latest bill to erode the First Amendment protections media outlets have long enjoyed.

If passed, it would require a news publication or broadcast station to permanently delete any report on its web server if it learns, either through a court decision or information that a “reasonable person” would believe, that the report contains false or defamatory information.

If an outlet refuses to take down the story, it will lose fair report privilege considerations in defamation and libel lawsuits.

The site must erase the story even if just one word or sentence is incorrect. Stories that no longer reflect up-to-date information, such as the exoneration or nonprosecution of someone, would also have to be removed.

The bill would also revise Florida law so that the statute of limitations for legal action begins on the last day the report was accessible online rather than when it was published.

Tallahassee Republican Sen. Corey Simon, the bill’s sponsor, said state law today provides that if a publication or broadcast outlet publishes falsehoods or defamatory statements, they are under no obligation to remove the information online.

“This can be devastating to a person because the false information will pop up any time someone searches the victim’s name,” he said. “And no one hires anyone without doing such a search.”

Simon filed the bill on behalf of lawyer Barry Richard, the husband of Tallahassee Democratic Rep. Allison Tant. Its inspiration is the story of one of Richard’s Miami clients, who was accused of a crime in 2017 for which the State Attorney declined to prosecute due to insufficient evidence. The man later sued his accusers for defamation and won.

But more than seven years later, Richard told the Committee that a Google search of his client’s name produced images of the man in shackles and an orange jumpsuit alongside reporting that only listed the charges he could have faced.

“He was a successful executive businessman,” Richard said. “He has been called multiple times by headhunters because of companies that were interested in interviewing him. They set up interviews, but before he arrives, every time, it’s canceled because nobody hires anymore without Googling a name.”

Simon said his legislation seeks to compel outlets to remove such stories, even if the reporting in them is accurate and factual.

“In the event that case has run its course and they are found to be (innocent), we’re asking that story be taken down,” he said.

Simon confirmed his bill applies only to the original poster of the report, not to other outlets that pick up the news and refer to it. He added that it also doesn’t apply to comments on news websites or posts on social media “because that steps on … First Amendment rights, and we’re not going to do that.”

St. Augustine Republican Sen. Tom Leek, a lawyer by training, called SB 752 “a very good bill.” He said long-standing protections for media did not consider the internet, and new rules are needed to protect people from reputational harm.

“In the old days, that picture of a guy in shackles and an orange jumpsuit would have ended up on the bottom of somebody’s birdcage or cat box and then into the archives, and it would be done,” he said.

Tamarac Democratic Sen. Rosalind Osgood agreed and complained of being a frequent target of denigration by her hometown newspaper.

“As elected officials, people think they can just say what they want to say and lie on you and drag you, and nothing is done about it. And it hurts your kids. It hurts your reputation,” she said. “We have to have freedom of speech, but it needs to be with integrity.”

Others saw the potential for negative impacts.

Boca Raton Democratic Sen. Tina Scott Polsky said what happened to Richard’s client was unfortunate and that the outlet should have taken the story down voluntarily. But it didn’t report anything inaccurately.

“It doesn’t take away from the fact that it happened, and that’s what news is,” she said. “(This bill) is just clunky, and it doesn’t make a lot of sense. There is so much attack on the media now because of our President, because of our Governor. There are lawsuits left and right against very valid news organizations, and this is only going to feed into that frenzy.”

Polsky and Boynton Beach Democratic Sen. Lori Berman, a fellow lawyer, voted against SB 752.

James Lake, a lawyer who teaches and practices defamation law, told the panel that the bill contradicts the Legislature’s recent efforts on tort reform. He warned that, as written, the measure’s removal of fair report privilege protections could make anyone, including conservative commentators, subject to defamation suits.

Sam Morley, general counsel for the Florida Press Association, argued the bill is too vague, citing, among other things, its removal requirement that could conceivably extend to campaign and political ads.

Archive sites and online republications have essentially made most of what is posted online permanent in some fashion, he said, and Simon’s proposal would prevent news outlets from doing what they’ve traditionally done to address inadvertent falsehoods or inaccuracies: correcting the story and noting that correction.

“Why require the publisher to take down the version of the story containing a correction or an apology?” he said. “If you do that, the only version of (the report) that will continue to live on the internet will be the original, false version.”

SB 752 and its House analog (HB 667) by Inverness Republican Rep. J.J. Grow are spiritual successors to bills Pensacola Republican Rep. Alex Andrade unsuccessfully carried in 2023 and 2024.

Last year’s version of Andrade’s legislation, which had Senate support from Lake Mary Republican Sen. Jason Brodeur, would have lowered the bar in defamation lawsuits by shifting the burden of proof from the plaintiff to the defendant. It also would have required courts to accept as fact that if a defamatory statement about a public figure is published and the statement relied on an anonymous source, the publisher acted with malice.

Gov. Ron DeSantis boosted the concept in 2023 to hold national media outlets accountable. Still, Andrade’s bill drew the ire of several conservative outlets and criticism from Stephen Miller, a policy adviser to President Donald Trump, who suggested the change could suppress conservative speech.

SB 752 will next go to the Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee, after which it has one more stop before reaching a floor vote. HB 667 awaits a hearing before the first of two committees to which it was referred.