Florida Bans Contracts With Media-Monitoring Services Over Alleged Bias

In a move to combat what he calls biased censorship, Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis announced a ban on state financial service contracts with media-monitoring organizations like NewsGuard and the Global Disinformation Index (GDI). This decision, unveiled on Wednesday, is part of Patronis’s broader effort to protect businesses from what he sees as politically motivated suppression of speech.

Patronis’s directive claims that news credibility ratings issued by these organizations are based on political biases rather than factual accuracy. “No taxpayer money from my agency will fund censorship on my watch, and no Florida business should suffer simply because it expresses views that these groups don’t like,” he declared.

The ban specifically targets NewsGuard, a tool used in K-12 classrooms to rate the credibility of news sources, and GDI, which advises advertisers on where to spend their marketing dollars. These organizations have been accused of blacklisting conservative websites and favoring legacy media despite their own histories of erroneous reporting.

NewsGuard and GDI are among the groups that will no longer be able to contract with Florida’s Department of Financial Services. Patronis criticized these entities for contributing to a system of social credit scores that can result in debanking and deplatforming legitimate private entities. “That’s wrong, and I will use my authority as CFO to protect businesses and consumers against these abusive tactics,” Patronis said in a press release.

The decision follows a failed attempt to pass statewide legislation banning such contracts. However, Patronis hopes his directive will inspire further legislative action both in Florida and across the country. “I may not be able to control it statewide, but I can definitely do that within our office,” he said, expressing optimism that increased visibility will spur broader legislative changes.

This action is part of a wider backlash against media-monitoring services, which some lawmakers claim are used to suppress dissenting opinions. The House Oversight Committee has already opened an investigation into these services’ practices, reflecting a growing concern over their influence on public discourse.

As Patronis’s directive takes effect, it highlights the ongoing debate over media credibility and the role of state and federal governments in addressing perceived biases in news rating systems.

 

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