For too long, Americans have been preyed upon online. It’s past time to enshrine into law the rights that will protect Americans as they use everyday digital services.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is leading this charge. Other states, no matter the political affiliation of their elected leaders, should follow his example and put their citizens back in control of their increasingly digitized lives.
On Feb. 15, DeSantis released a preview of his legislative proposal that would create a “Digital Bill of Rights” for Floridians. The plan involves preventing Big Tech from abusing data, limiting the ability of foreign adversaries to spy on citizens, and preventing harm to children. All three points hit on popular issues that Americans care about.
Many Republicans talk a big game on Big Tech but fail to implement the necessary changes that will stop its abuses. DeSantis is looking to set a new course.
On multiple fronts, from protecting private conversations from Big Tech surveillance to countering harmful bias in search engine algorithms, Florida’s Digital Bill of Rights seeks to claw back the power that Big Tech has amassed. The goal of this effort is to give the user control over his or her activity and data rather than surrender it to Big Tech.
DeSantis emphasized that each person should consent to his or her data being used in certain ways, such as for targeted advertisement. This is a paradigm shift away from the view of Big Tech defenders who think that by
