By PRFSU Writers 2023-2024 
Daniel Ogden
On March 7th, Florida State Senator Jason Brodeur introduced State Bill (SB) 1316 to the Senate floor. This bill, along with addressing some provisions regarding county websites and state government use, “requir[es] bloggers to register with the Office of Legislative Services or the Commission on Ethics, as applicable, within a specified timeframe; authorizing a magistrate to enter a final order determining the reasonableness of circumstances for an untimely filing or a fine amount, etc.” as stated on the Florida Senate website.
Specifically, this bill requires that any person who uploads written content to a website or “blog” not associated with a newspaper or similar publication would have to register with either the Office of Legislative Services or the Commission on Ethics if a post is about an “elected state official“, i.e. the Governor, Lt. Governor, a Cabinet Officer, or any member of the Legislature. and if the post receives or would receive compensation for that post. This registration must take place within five days of the initial post. Upon filing, the blogger is responsible for filing monthly reports to the corresponding office, including the individuals or entities compensating the blogger, the amount compensated for, the date the post was published, and the website address. If a blogger fails to register, they will be fined $25 a day with the total fine being capped at $2,500. These fines will be funneled to either the Legislative Lobbyist Registration Fund or the Executive Branch Lobby Registration Fund, depending on whom the article is written about.
A Jason Brodeur quote from FloridaPolitics.com shows insight into the bill’s main proponent’s line of thinking “[p]aid bloggers are lobbyists who write instead of talk. They both are professional electioneers. If lobbyists have to register and report, why shouldn’t paid bloggers?”
This bill has sparked outrage and backlash from numerous political opponents. Many free-speech-oriented organizations around the country, notably FIRE (The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression), wrote about the State Bill, declaring it unconstitutional and un-American, at odds with our nation’s founding spirit, and an assault on our nation’s tradition of protecting anonymous speech. Alson, Free Press Action, a free speech and media advocacy group, has published a petition on its website urging the Florida Legislature to reject SB 1316.
Even fellow GOP member Newt Gingrich has criticized the bill on Twitter. As quoted in the Orlando Sentinel, Gingrich said, “The idea that bloggers criticizing a politician should register with the government is insane…It is an embarrassment that it is a Republican state legislator in Florida who introduced a bill to that effect. He should withdraw it immediately.” The bill has even drawn comparisons to a 2014 Russian law by Vladimir Putin that targeted political opposition bloggers and blocked access to their websites across Russia. According to the Washington Post, the law requires anyone with an audience of 3,000 or more people to register with the Russian Internet Oversight Agency and hold them responsible for any misinformation published on their websites, even if it is left in the comments by someone else.
This is not the first time Jason Brodeur has fallen under fire from national media for proposing limitations on the “press”. In 2020, during State Legislative elections, a ghost candidate “Jestine Iannotti” registered as an independent and ran as the third candidate against Brodeur and Democrat Patricia Sigman. As stated in the Daytona Beach News-Journal, later on, it was found that Benjamin Paris, Chair of the Seminole County GOP, former Longwood mayor, and vice president of operations at the Seminole County Chamber of Commerce, where Brodeur is CEO, along with Jestine Iannotti and Eric Fogelsong were guilty of commissioning of a fraudulent act, making illegal campaign contributions, and perjury. They made conscious efforts to donate money to this ghost candidate through other friends and family members, creating a third option to split the vote in a district where State Senator Brodeur won the majority by 0.3%. Brodeur has denied any relation to this criminal act. However, Joel Greenberg, the former Seminole County Tax Collector, was found guilty of underage sex trafficking, wire fraud, stalking, identity theft, and conspiring to defraud the US Govt. and was sentenced to 11 years in jail, revealed new information during his investigation and the subsequent sex trafficking probe of one of Florida’s Congressmen, Matt Gaetz. Joel Greenburg alleges that Jason Brodeur knew about the “ghost” candidate and was directly involved in this scheme. The following transcript of his testimony can be found at wesh.com:
Greenberg: “Brodeur was there. Present in the conversation, just like he would be sitting around this table.”
FDLE: “(Brodeur) had first-hand knowledge that the plan was to run a third-party candidate in his race?”
Greenberg: “Absolutely.”
Brodeur introduced SB 1220 on the same day, making it easier to sue journalists by assuming that information from anonymous sources is false, preventing journalists from shielding sources or whistleblowers. Specifically, it labels information from an unverified and anonymous report that can be considered defamatory and false on the same grounds as information that is fabricated or “is the product of his or her imagination.” As defined by this bill, the legal threshold for veracity is determined by the state’s ability to judge the statement or report, from an anonymous source, as “inherently improbable or implausible on its face.” Despite the lack of movement on SB 1316, this bill (SB 1220) has picked up steam, passing through the Judiciary Committee in a 9 to 3 vote, and will now be debated in the Rules Committee on April 19th.
State Senator Jason Brodeur refused to comment to the Florida State Political Review when contacted and asked about SB 1316.