ORLANDO, Fla. – The 2024 SHIELD Act, designed to protect every American’s reputation on the internet and social media platforms, could become part of the comprehensive privacy bill as early as July.
Florida Congressman Darren Soto, D-District 9, told News 6 the amendment is a “perfect fit” for the privacy bill that has been written and rewritten for nearly five years.
“Congress never moves as quickly as I’d like it to,” Soto told News 6. “Just note that the SHIELD Act is seriously in the discussion for this comprehensive privacy legislation.”
Soto presented the SHIELD Act to the Innovation Data and Commerce Subcommittee in May following a News 6 investigation into racially-charged posts that appeared to originate from UCF student Alex Bugay’s personal email address.
The posts delivered the racist slurs against Georgia state Rep. Mesha Mainor after she announced her intentions to change political parties from Democrat to Republican.
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Bugay was slammed by Mainor as well as UCF students despite Bugay’s denials that he had anything to do with it.
“I didn’t even know who Rep. Mainor was,” Bugay told News 6 during an interview in November 2023. “It was a tough few weeks, I’ll say that.”
It turns out an imposter used his name in the posts, but by the time the truth came out, the damage had been done.
Soto said Bugay’s nightmare convinced him to file the SHIELD Act and he is confident the measure will be included as an amendment to the American Privacy Rights Act of 2024.
“We’ve taken Channel 6′s Alex Bugay story all the way to the Capitol to protect central Floridians and beyond,” Soto said.
According to Soto, the proposed measure will allow people to “shield themselves” from identity theft by creating a duty for every internet company to take down false information including items posted by someone posing an as innocent individual like Alex Bugay.
Soto said he is confident the SHIELD Act will have bipartisan support and will be included in the full privacy bill.
“I’m hopeful it will be in July, but it could be in September,” he told News 6. “It’s very common for us to have a debate over some of the amendments in the subcommittee and then work on trying to get them in the base text for the full committee, because this is the comprehensive privacy bill, the main privacy internet bill that we are working on for the whole country.”
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