Florida SB 7072

Florida Senate Bill 7072 was among the first state laws to regulate how social media platforms moderate content, with specific provisions covering political candidates and journalistic enterprises.

Major Provisions

The law’s provisions included requirements to:

• Prohibit platforms from deplatforming political candidates
• Impose fines up to $250,000 per day for deplatforming statewide candidates and$25,000 per day for other candidates
• Require detailed explanations for content moderation actions
• Protect “journalistic enterprises” from certain moderation
• Mandate transparency in content moderation standards

Court Challenges

• District Court: Preliminarily enjoined most provisions in June 2021 as likely violating the First Amendment
• 11th Circuit: In May 2022, affirmed the preliminary injunction as to the content-moderation restrictions and the individualized-explanation requirement, and vacated and remanded it as to certain other disclosure provisions
• Circuit Split: The 5th Circuit reached the opposite conclusion on Texas HB 20, producing a conflict between the circuits. Both judgments were later vacated, so neither now stands as binding precedent.
• Supreme Court: In Moody v. NetChoice (July 1, 2024), the Court vacated the Eleventh Circuit’s judgment and remanded, holding that neither lower court had properly analyzed the facial First Amendment challenges across the laws’ full range of applications. The Court did not decide whether SB 7072 is constitutional; the litigation continues in the lower courts.

Constitutional Issues

The litigation has turned on:

• Whether a platform’s content moderation is itself First Amendment-protected expressive activity
• Whether the law’s restrictions are content based
• Whether the individualized-explanation and disclosure requirements unduly burden expression under Zauderer v. Office of Disciplinary Counsel
• The standard governing facial First Amendment challenges, which is what the Supreme Court’s 2024 remand turned on

Legislative Context

• Enacted in 2021, in a period when major platforms had removed the accounts of sitting and former officeholders
• Texas enacted a comparable law, HB 20, the same year; the two were litigated in parallel