Florida Bill Would Require Bloggers to Register With State Before Writing About Elected Officials

Florida State Senator Jason Brodeur has filed Tuesday’s bill that would, if it is passed, require bloggers to register with Florida Office of Legislative Services in order to post about elected state officials.

“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,” The bill reads.

Brodeur’s SB 1316 with title “Information Dissemination,” What is an acronym? “elected state officer” The Governor, the Lieutenant Governor and a Cabinet Officer are all eligible to serve as Governors. 

A blog is specified in the bill “a website or webpage that hosts any blogger and is frequently updated with opinion, commentary, or business content. The term does not include the website of a newspaper or other similar publication.”

The bill requires that bloggers register with appropriate offices and file monthly reports detailing the compensation received by the blogger.

“If the compensation is for a series of blog posts or for a defined period of time,” It reads: “the blogger must disclose the total amount to be received upon the first blog post being published. Thereafter, the blogger must disclose the date or dates additional compensation is received, if any, for the series of blog posts.”

It must contain the date and URL of where the blog post was posted.

It clarifies the bill that bloggers will be treated as lobbyists.

According to the bill, each chamber of the Legislature will approve the rules. “same procedure by which lobbyists are notified of the failure to timely file a report and the amount of the assessed fines.”

A $25 fine per day per report, payable for every day late is specified in the bill. Payment must be made within 30 days from notice was sent.

Brodeur declined to comment on a request, but he did tell Florida Politics Lobbyists are paid bloggers “write instead of talk.”

“They both are professional electioneers,” Brodeur said. “If lobbyists have to register and report, why shouldn’t paid bloggers?”

Jonah Dickstein of First Amendment Lawyers Association said that although he was skeptical about the bill, he did not doubt the motives of those proposing it.

“I think they’re trying to find solutions to a real problem,” Dickstein said. “Which I think there may already be laws that could be better used to deal with some of these situations.”

Dickstein pointed out that it is problematic to require registration for journalists in order practice their profession.

“For citizen journalists or smaller organizations, it has more than a chilling effect,” Dickstein said. “It absolutely has the risk of being used by authorities to shut them out completely from journalistic activity.”

Dickstein claimed that small journalists are the First Amendment’s best. “really is about.”

You can’t judge. “whether these particular legal approaches are good or bad until they’ve made their way through the legislative process,” He said.

“I think it’s worth taking the time to get these things straightened out,” Dickstein said. “And it could make sense to withhold judgment until there have been the debates and the policy adjustments before we have a finished product.”

The governor responded to the proposal. Bryan Griffin, Ron DeSantis’s press secretary, stated that legislation comes from the legislature and, in recent years over 3,000 bills were filed annually in Florida.

“As usual, the governor will consider the merits of a bill in final form—if, and when, it passes the legislature,” Griffin stated.