Sen. Jason Brodeur of Florida (R-Lake Mary) wants bloggers who post on Governor Ron DeSantis, Attorney General Ashley Moody, and other members of the Florida executive cabinet or legislature to register with the state or risk fines. Any blogger who writes about public officials would have to register with the Florida Office of Legislative Services or the Commission on Ethics under Brodeur’s plan, Senate Bill 1316: Information Distribution.
According to Brodeur’s bill, anyone who writes “an article, a story, or a series of stories” about “the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, a Cabinet officer, or any member of the Legislature” and receives or will receive payment for doing so needs to register with state offices within five days of the article’s publication.
If a blogger adds a new blog post, they will be required to file monthly reports with the relevant state office by the tenth of the month. In months with no new content released, they wouldn’t need to submit a report. Monthly reports are required to include the amount of remuneration received for blog entries that “affect an elected member of the legislature” or “an officer of the executive branch,” rounded to the nearest $10 value.
When the first post in a series or timeframe is published, the blogger must declare the total amount to be received if compensation is being paid for a series of articles or for a set period. Afterward, additional payments must be reported. If the law is passed, failing to submit these disclosures or register with state authorities would result in daily fines for the bloggers, with a cap of $2,500 per report, not per writer.
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For each day that a report is late, there is a $25 punishment. Similar to how lobbyists must disclose their activities and submit reports on fines imposed, the measure also mandates that bloggers file notices of their failure to submit reports on time. Fines must be paid within 30 days of receiving a payment notice, barring the filing of an appeal with the relevant authorities.
When paying a fine for an elected legislator, the money must go into the Legislative Lobbyist Registration Trust Fund. Fines for writing about members of the executive branch should be made due to the Executive Branch Lobby Registration Trust Fund, or if the fine applies to both groups, it should be split equally between the two trust funds. Newspapers and other publications would expressly be exempt from the blogger rule under Brodeur’s proposed legislation.
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Along with the restrictions on bloggers, the bill also repeals state statutes that required judicial notices of sales to be published on websites that were open to the public. It also specifies that a government agency may publish legally required advertisements and public notices on county websites even if the cost is not covered by or recovered by an individual. Should the bill pass, it would go into effect right away after being approved.
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