Last week, Orlando-area Florida state Sen. Jason Brodeur, a Republican, introduced a bill that would require “bloggers” who publish posts about the state’s officials—including its governor, Ron DeSantis—to register and file ongoing reports with the Florida government.
Requiring writers to register with the state is a concept with totalitarian overtones, and the proposal was met with outraged criticism that often made reference to Florida Republicans’ enthusiasm for other strongman-style tactics like seizing control over the curriculum of the New College of Florida and accusing critics (including the Disney corporation) of contributing to the sexual abuse of minors.
Under the hood, the bill is perhaps less sinister than a broad-strokes description might make it seem: The registration requirement would not apply to websites affiliated with “a newspaper or other similar publication,” and would only cover posts for which “compensation” was provided.
Brodeur argued that his goal is to extend the same transparency requirements to paid advocacy content that is already applied to other lobbying activities—and on that subject, he might find common ground with liberals concerned about the effects of pretend news sites and other less-than-forthright influence campaigns. The CEO of Florida’s largest utility company, as it happens, resigned in January after multiple exposés documented the company’s history of secretly paying for beneficial press coverage. (Which it did through a company called Matrix LLC. Wait one paragraph for a payoff on this seemingly random aside!)
There are also reasons to believe Brodeur is not entirely motivated by the ideals of good government. He’s proposed a separate bill that would hold journalists liable for defamation if they print an otherwise unverified accusation that is provided to them by an anonymous source, which describes many of the accusations that expose public corruption. Brodeur also won his election to the state Senate in 2020 in a race that featured a third-party candidate who has since been indicted, along with two other individuals, by prosecutors who allege that her campaign was secretly organized and funded by Republican operatives who were trying to siphon votes away from the Democrat in the race. The operatives attempting to siphon votes, the Orlando Sentinel reports, may have been working with none other than Matrix LLC . (Florida Power and Light denies involvement in this “ghost candidate” scheme, as does Brodeur.)
In any case, the “blogger” bill was criticized by free-speech advocacy groups and political figures on both the right and left, and DeSantis—though he’s called for changes to libel laws like the ones Brodeur has proposed—said at a press conference Tuesday that he does not support it. “Every person in the legislature can file bills. I see these people filing bills and there are these articles with my face on the article saying that bloggers are going to have to register with the state and they’re attributing it to me,” he complained. “That’s not anything I’ve ever supported.”
And, of course, he can say whatever he likes, but it is nonetheless Slate’s position that bloggers—especially political bloggers—do actually constitute a special subclass of United States citizens to whom normal rights do not apply. Writing on a daily basis about subjects like Donald Trump’s diet and Aaron Rodgers’ hallucination cave is a fundamentally degrading activity, and the people who do it should be monitored, tracked, and, if necessary, tased. As such, we have sent the following email to the DeSantis administration, care of its media@eog.myflorida.com email inbox:
SUBJ: Registering self
Just in case you change your minds.
Ben Mathis-Lilley, blogger/enemy of the state
See you in the gulag!
