Tag: florida

TikTok Settles Lawsuit Accusing Social Media Giants Of Harming Florida Boy

TikTok has reached a settlement with a Florida teenager who blamed the platform and other social media companies for fueling his addiction, leading to depression, anxiety, and sleep loss, just ahead of a trial to determine the industry’s part in the youth mental health crisis.

The settlement, made public Tuesday, lays to rest claims against ByteDance’s TikTok related to the lawsuit filed by the boy.

Details of the settlement were not disclosed.

Trials against Meta’s Instagram and Snap’s Snapchat remain scheduled for July in California.

According to court filings, the plaintiff argues he began using social media at approximately age 8 and became addicted.

As Kimberley Hayek reports for The Epoch Times, the case is one of many taking aim at social media companies, accusing them of designing the platforms to addict young users.

Earlier this month, YouTube settled with the same plaintiff.

“YouTube’s decision to resolve this case before having to face a jury speaks for itself,” the plaintiff’s attorneys from Morgan & Morgan stated in that settlement.

“We will continue fighting on behalf of all those affected by social media addiction to bring these companies to justice and compel them to prioritize the safety of their young users over their bottom lines.”

In March, a jury in Los Angeles found Meta and Google liable for harms to a young woman, awarding damages after findings of negligence tied to addictive design features.

Jurors found the platforms contributed to addiction and mental health issues, leading to millions in compensatory and punitive damages. A judge upheld the verdict this month.

More than 3,300 addiction-related lawsuits remain pending in California state court, with thousands more pending in federal court. School districts and states have also pursued claims, with some settlements reached, such as a Kentucky district’s agreement with several platforms.

The TikTok settlement allows the company to avoid what would have been only the second individual trial of its kind in California over social media’s impact on minors.

Plaintiffs in these cases argue that features, such as endless scrolling, personalized algorithms, and notifications create a “vicious cycle” of engagement that does harm to young brains.

Tech companies argue they have implemented parental controls, age-appropriate tools, and other safeguards for young users. Google, for instance, has underscored its safety efforts in statements regarding the YouTube settlement.

“Our focus remains on building age-appropriate products and parental controls that deliver on that promise,” Google spokesman José Castañeda said in a statement. 

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Democracy Dies In Sunny South Florida

A legacy media publication famously claims that “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” In Miami-Dade County, however, democracy is dying in broad daylight. A substantial majority of local incumbents are cruising to re-election without a single challenger in either the primary or general election. Their only potential barrier to continued tenure is statutory term limits. In some cases, incumbents were appointed to their posts and have never faced the voters at all.

I. State Representatives
At least five of the roughly dozen local state representatives have already secured re-election without opposition:

House District 110: Tom Fabricio (R-Miami Lakes)
House District 111: David Borrero (R-Doral)
House District 112: Alex Rizo (R-Hialeah)
House District 114: Demi Busatta (R-Coral Gables)
House District 120: Jim Mooney (R-Florida Keys)

The following incumbents have also advanced to the November general election without primary challengers:

House District 115: Omar Blanco (R-Dadeland)
House District 116: Ashley Perez-Biliskov (R-Westchester), sister of outgoing Republican House Speaker Danny Perez
House District 119: Juan Carlos Porras (R-The Hammocks)

Your correspondent expects to endorse every one of these legislators in the general election. Still, representative government would be healthier if incumbents were forced to defend their records, character, and policies before the voters.

A few races remain contested:

House District 113 (Brickell, Coconut Grove, Little Havana, Shenandoah, and Key Biscayne): Republicans Tony Diaz and Bruno Barreiro are waging spirited primary campaigns against RINO Frank Lago. See: Tony Diaz for Florida House District 113. Lago has distributed mailers featuring his photo beside President Trump’s, despite no involvement or endorsement from Trump. See: Fishy Frank Lago Is Swimming to an Open Seat Near You.

House District 117 (Homestead and Florida City): Republican Miguel Granda is challenging incumbent Democrat Kevin Chambliss in the general election.
House District 118 (mostly unincorporated areas near Kendall-Tamiami Executive Airport): Incumbent Republican Mike Redondo, the incoming House Speaker, faces a primary challenge from independent Republican Marco Insua, who lives in the district.

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Black Democrats Attack Longtime Dem Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz for Decision to Run in District with Large Black Population

Grab some popcorn!

Black Democrats are lashing out at longtime Democrat Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz for her decision to run for reelection in a district with a majority black population.

Wasserman Schultz was first elected to Congress in 2004 to represent Florida’s 25th District.

However, Wasserman Schultz is now running in Florida’s 20th Congressional District after Republican lawmakers redistricted and reshaped the map.

Wasserman Shultz is now running in an area that was represented by Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, a black lawmaker who resigned earlier this year after she was indicted on fraud charges.

Black Democrats are now coming for Wasserman Schultz and attacking her for running in district with a large black population.

The Hill reported:

Some Black Democrats are frustrated with Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s (D-Fla.) decision to run in a South Florida congressional district home to a large Black voting population, sparking an intraparty clash that is poised to become a defining battle of the campaign season.

Wasserman Schultz, a veteran lawmaker who has served in Congress since 2005, is running in Florida’s 20th Congressional District, which had been represented by former Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.) for four years before she resigned in April. Wasserman Schultz’s bid comes after GOP-led redistricting efforts in the state reshaped her current 25th District, making it far more favorable for Republicans.

But her political opponents and other critics argue that her move not only disregards the district’s unique history and undermines opportunities for Black political representation, but is also a slight to Black voters.

“I think, for sure, it was a bad move by the congresswoman to run in this district. It was selfish and all about her, her career, and not about the community. She failed to do any meaningful dialogue with the community before announcing her run, and it comes off as a hostile takeover of the district,” said Elijah Manley, a 27-year-old Black Democrat and progressive organizer running against her in the primary.

“I mean, so many people she ignored and didn’t have conversations with, from the Florida Legislative Black Caucus, and the chair of that caucus as well, to the Black elected officials.”

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Florida Sues TikTok Over Age Verification Failures as Digital ID Mandate Takes Effect

Florida wants every social media user in the state to prove how old they are. The method is up to the platforms and the options include government ID uploads, biometric face scans, payment credentials, and behavioral profiling. Now the state is suing TikTok for not doing it fast enough.

Attorney General James Uthmeier filed a 66-page complaint Monday in St. Lucie County Circuit Court, accusing TikTok of letting children under 14 create accounts, skipping parental consent for 14- and 15-year-olds, and lying to parents about what their kids actually see on the app.

The lawsuit names TikTok Inc., its parent company ByteDance and several related entities. It’s the first enforcement action under House Bill 3, Florida’s Online Protections for Minors Act, which took effect January 1, 2025 after spending two years tangled in court challenges.

We obtained a copy of the lawsuit for you here. 

HB 3 bans social media platforms with addictive design features from contracting with children 13 and younger and requires parental consent before 14- and 15-year-olds can open accounts.

Violations carry fines of $50,000 each. But to block minors, platforms first have to figure out who is and isn’t a minor, which means age-checking every user, adults included.

Florida is building an identity verification regime for the internet under the banner of protecting kids and the surveillance costs of that project land on millions of people who have done nothing wrong.

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SHOCKING: Fired Florida Juvenile Probation Officer Kept Access to Sensitive Court Database for YEARS – Used It 106 Times to Tip Off Drug Traffickers About Active Arrest Warrants

A 32-year-old former Florida Department of Juvenile Justice employee who was terminated in 2022 after a battery arrest has been hit with 113 felony counts after allegedly exploiting her still-active access to the state’s Comprehensive Case Information System (CCIS) to warn members of a drug trafficking organization about impending arrests.

Crystal Lawson was hired in February 2022 as a Juvenile Probation Officer. She was fired later that same year following her arrest on a battery charge. Critically, her access to the sensitive statewide court database was never revoked, WFTV9 reported.

Between January and May 2026, Lawson unlawfully accessed the CCIS database 106 times, specifically targeting active criminal cases involving a Drug Trafficking Organization (DTO) under investigation by law enforcement.

She searched for and located multiple active, unserved arrest warrants, identified co-defendants in the case, and then leaked that information directly to members and associates of the DTO.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Office (OCSO) did not mince words in its official statement:

“These leaks resulted in lost evidence, unrecovered assets, and at least one flight to avoid arrest.”

Lawson now faces 113 felony counts of Computer Crimes – Unauthorized Access. Each count carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, meaning she could be looking at 565 years behind bars if convicted on every charge.

OCSO Intelligence agents made the arrest, and the sheriff’s office released footage of Lawson in custody.

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SHOCKING VIDEO: Black Woman in Florida Films Herself Punching Random White Man While Ranting That He Was on the Karmelo Anthony Jury, Second Attack in New Trend of Racially Motivated Assaults?

A disturbing video has gone viral showing a black female in Florida approaching a seated white man, accusing him of serving on the jury that convicted Karmelo Anthony of murder, then punching him in the face.

This is the second viral video in as many days of a white person being attacked and falsely accused of being on the Anthony jury.

The victim was not, and could not have been, on the jury. The murder trial took place in Collin County, Texas, not Florida.

The video was uploaded to Facebook by a woman named Mesha Keaton, of Tampa, who appears to be the attacker.

In the footage, Keaton approaches the man, who is sitting outdoors, and demands: “Hey, hey, weren’t you on the motherfucking jury selection?”

When he denies it, she insists, “Yes, you was,” before physically assaulting him.

She continues ranting during the attack.

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ACLU Sues After Facial Recognition Falsely Identifies Florida Man as a Child Abductor

Police arrested a man in Florida for attempted child abduction in a town he had never visited, and the only evidence linking him to the crime was an AI facial recognition hit. Represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), he is now suing the officers and agencies who put him through it.

In November 2023, police in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, responded to a call about an attempted child abduction at a McDonald’s. Witnesses said an adult man allegedly tried to get the child, identified as a girl under 12 years old, to leave the restaurant with him. According to a police report, facial recognition software concluded with 93 percent confidence that the suspect was Robert Dillon.

In August 2024, Deputies arrested Dillon at his home in Fort Myers, Florida—hundreds of miles away, at the opposite end of the state. “Are you shitting me, man?” Dillon asked the arresting deputy. “I haven’t been out of Fort Myers in two years.” Further, he also said he had never been to Jacksonville Beach.

Dillon posted bail and pleaded not guilty to enticing or luring a child—a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison. More than two months later, prosecutors dropped the charges after his attorney provided evidence that he was at work on the day in question.

But that doesn’t excuse the fact that he was only arrested in the first place, and threatened with prosecution for a particularly heinous offense, because of shoddy police work.

The ACLU is now suing the city of Jacksonville Beach, as well as the individual police officers and officials involved in the case. According to the lawsuit, the responding officer viewed security camera footage of the suspect but didn’t take a copy; instead, he took pictures of the screen with his cell phone. “In the photos, the suspect image is low resolution, and the suspect’s face is partially shadowed and off-axis,” the lawsuit claims.

When an investigator queried the facial recognition system, it was with the officer’s grainy secondhand cell phone photos.

But there were other leads that police could have followed, to either bolster their case or point in another direction. For example, when he approached the girl, the suspect was picking up food that had been ordered ahead; this implies he had an online account, with contact information and a form of payment attached.

“These records could have been used to identify the actual person who placed the suspect’s order,” the lawsuit notes. “Upon information and belief, Jacksonville Beach PD personnel never requested or obtained mobile ordering records, payment data, or online account information from McDonald’s.”

Further, the McDonald’s manager recognized the assailant as a “regular customer”—likely precluding Dillon, who lived and worked on the other side of the state and did not frequently travel. Besides, at no point did investigators search footage for the suspect’s previous visits, either for higher quality images or transaction records. And once they settled on Dillon as a suspect, investigators could have gotten a warrant for his cell phone’s GPS data, showing whether or not he was at a fast food restaurant 300 miles away from his home on the night in question.

The lawsuit notes that when Dillon’s name came up, investigating officer Scott O’Connell queried the police database of license plate readers, which did not detect Dillon’s vehicles in Jacksonville Beach within the 48 hours surrounding the attempted abduction.

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The Business Of Homelessness

Several months ago, I wrote an opinion piece questioning Miami Beach’s homelessness policies, the City’s compliance with state law, the effectiveness of taxpayer-funded programs, and the measurable outcomes residents were receiving for millions of dollars in public spending. The article was published by Miami’s Community Newspapers. Today, that article no longer exists on its website. Readers attempting to access it are greeted with a 404 error page.

I have no interest in speculating about who made that decision or why. What interests me is the larger question: why is there such resistance to a public debate about homelessness in Miami Beach? Because the questions raised in that article have never been answered.

For months, I have asked for a real discussion about homelessness in Miami Beach. Not a press release. Not a presentation. Not carefully crafted messaging. A debate. Policy against policy. Outcome against outcome. Fact against fact. Those opportunities have never been granted.

That alone should concern every resident and taxpayer.

When government is confident in its position, it welcomes scrutiny. It does not avoid it. It does not rely on talking points. It does not ask the public to accept conclusions without examining the facts. It engages, explains, and defends its decisions in full view of the people it serves.

Instead, Miami Beach continues to celebrate low point-in-time homeless counts as proof of success. That may make for a favorable headline, but it does not necessarily mean the problem is being solved. A point-in-time count is exactly what it sounds like: a snapshot. One night. One moment. It does not measure how many people return to the streets days later. It does not measure treatment outcomes. It does not measure recidivism. It does not measure whether people are actually escaping homelessness. It measures optics.

The uncomfortable reality is that Miami Beach has built a system that explains inaction instead of delivering results.

The City’s ordinance conditions enforcement on the availability of shelter and services. In practice, that means enforcement becomes optional. No shelter available means no enforcement. No enforcement means no compliance. No compliance means the problem continues. Florida law does not provide cities with an indefinite loophole to suspend action. The State made its expectations clear. Prohibit public camping. Enforce the law. Provide structured alternatives. Use available treatment resources. Intervene when individuals are in crisis.

More importantly, the State backed those expectations with funding, treatment programs, crisis stabilization resources, Baker Act authority, Marchman Act authority, and legal tools designed to address homelessness, mental illness, and substance abuse. The authority exists. The resources exist. The question is whether local government has the will to use them.

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Florida vs. OpenAI: The Fight to ID Every ChatGPT User

Florida wants a court to force OpenAI to verify how old you are before ChatGPT will talk to you freely and the demand reaches far past the children the state says it wants to protect.

Attorney General James Uthmeier filed a civil suit on Monday against OpenAI and chief executive Sam Altman, calling it the first state-led case of its kind.

We obtained a copy of the lawsuit for you here.

Most of the coverage has gone to the alleged harms. The complaint accuses the company of feeding content unsuitable for children to minors and states that “vulnerable people have been encouraged into suicide.”

Uthmeier told reporters, “If this was a human being on the other side of the screen, we would be charging them with accessory to commit murder.” Those are heavy charges and a court will weigh them.

The part that touches everyone who opens ChatGPT is the remedy Florida is chasing. The state complains that the free product has “no gatekeeping or age verification mechanism,” and it claims the paid subscription has “no mechanism to verify the age of its users.” It wants a judge to close that gap by ordering verification into place.

There is a problem with the second claim. OpenAI announced its age estimation plans back in September and it began rolling out age prediction across consumer plans in January.

The system already runs as a form of mass surveillance. It works by watching how you behave, studying how long your account has existed, when you tend to log in, and how you use the product, then guessing whether you are under 18.

Anyone the model flags as a minor who is actually an adult has to prove it by handing a selfie or a government ID to a third-party firm called Persona.

So the supposed absence of verification is a verification system that runs on behavioral profiling backed by face scans and identity documents.

That changes what the lawsuit is actually pushing for. Age verification cannot work without identity verification.

To confirm you are not a child, a company has to learn enough about you to rule it out. That means collecting your government ID, scanning your face, or building a profile detailed enough to estimate your age from how you type and when you log in.

There is no version of “prove you are an adult” that does not involve handing over something you would otherwise keep to yourself.

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Google to Release 64 Million Bacteria-Infected Mosquitoes Across California and Florida Over the Next Two Years

Google is seeking federal approval to release up to 64 million specially treated mosquitoes across California and Florida over the next two years, according to an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announcement published earlier this month in The Federal Register, the official journal of the U.S. government.

The tech giant is “requesting an experimental use permit (EUP) for the Wolbachia pipientis wAlbB contained in live adult Culex quinquefasciatus male mosquitoes (DQB Strain),” according to the announcement.

A summary of the request reads:

“Google LLC is proposing to use up to 14.080 mg of the active ingredient Wolbachia pipientis wAlbB Contained in Live Adult Culex quinquefasciatus Male Mosquitoes (DQB Strain) for two years in California and Florida. In Florida, up to 16,000,000 DQB Male Mosquitoes are proposed to be released in year 1, and up to 16,000,000 released in year 2. In California, up to 16,000,000 are proposed to be released in year 1, and up to 16,000,000 released in year 2. Proposed testing will include the states of California and Florida to generate data to support a Section 3 product registration application under FIFRA.”

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