Florida governor could brand groups as terrorists, alarming free speech advocates

[Zorro]

Other bills would also ban certain books in schools and forbid referring to the “West Bank” in official documents.

State lawmakers this session are considering changing state laws that could affect what Floridians can say, write and read.

Legislators are weighing giving the governor broad powers to brand groups as “terrorist organizations” and expel college students who support them. They’re proposing forbidding the state from referring to the “West Bank” and imposing more restrictions on school books.

Several of the ideas have bipartisan support. But they’ve received pushback from free speech advocates and trade union representatives. They’ve also divided Republicans, who in recent years have decried what they said was censorship in the forms of political correctness and “cancel culture.”

Republican senators bowed to some of those criticisms on Tuesday. SB 290, backed by Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson, included a provision that would have allowed more food producers to sue people for “disparagement” of their products — and recoup the attorneys’ costs.

https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2026/02/10/free-speech-west-bank-terrorist-groups-book-bans/