As political campaigns heat up after the Labor Day holiday pause, Florida leaders have upped their efforts against tech companies and terrorism.

SHORT CIRCUITS

Attorney General James Uthmeier filed a lawsuit against the streaming service Netflix and announced a probe is underway into tech companies whose artificial intelligence products aid or abet crimes.

The lawsuit in St. Johns County, emulating a Texas lawsuit filed in May, comes after the Attorney General’s office the past few years has taken on OpenAI, Meta, Snapchat and TikTok. A lawsuit against Roblox, an online gaming platform, over its alleged failures to protect children from sexual predators, is also pending.

Regarding Netflix, Uthmeier on Wednesday claimed they violated state law by telling consumers it wouldn’t track and sell their data to advertisers, and that it’s keeping targeting children to keep them “tethered to the screen.”

A day earlier, Uthmeier, who is up for election, said he’ll push for new laws that put criminal penalties on artificial intelligence companies whose products abet in crimes.

Under his proposal, any company that owns, controls or distributes an AI product that participates in a crime is liable. Tech companies with “practical control” over the design, training, deployment and safety settings would be targeted, and face hefty fines, payment to victims, court-ordered monitorship and even suspension of activity in the state.

Uthmeier said he’s spoken with several lawmakers interested in the issue, but unless a special session is called, any legislation won’t be considered until the next regular legislative session begins in March.

He’s already investigating OpenAI for how the alleged gunman who killed two and wounded five at Florida State University last year used its ChatGPT product to plan the shooting.

TERRORISM

With little discussion, DeSantis and the Cabinet — Attorney General James Uthmeier, Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia and Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson — quickly approved an emergency rule on Friday spelling out how Florida designates various groups as terrorist organizations.

“We’ve obviously been keen on this issue for a long time,” DeSantis said. “This provided an appropriate framework, where the state can take action appropriately to be able to defend the people of Florida against hostile actors and terrorists groups.”

The rule change, announced Thursday and approved in a teleconference call, establishes that the state’s Chief of Domestic Security, currently Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Mark Glass, will notify the governor and Cabinet of plans to designate an organization as a domestic or foreign terrorist organization.

“I know there are imminent dangers to public health, safety, and welfare due to increasing risk from foreign and domestic terrorist groups and the emergency procedure under construction and consideration is fair in these circumstances because it is narrowly tailored and limited to addressing the identified danger,” Glass told DeSantis and the Cabinet.

The need for a process to impose the designation was part of 2026 legislation (HB 1471) signed by DeSantis.

On July 1, the first day the 2026 law took effect, DeSantis declared his intention to label the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the anti-fascism movement known as antifa as terrorist organizations.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida in Tallahassee, contending DeSantis is violating the First Amendment and the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

TIKTOK NURSE FINED

An administrative law judge recommended the Florida Department of Health reprimand and fine a nurse who posted a TikTok disparaging former White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

In January 2026, Lexie Lawler, a labor and delivery nurse employed at the time by Baptist Health Boca Raton Regional Hospital, recorded a personal TikTok video in which she wished Leavitt, who was pregnant, a gruesome and difficult birth experience.

“As a labor and delivery nurse, it gives me great joy to wish Karoline Leavitt a fourth-degree tear,” Lawler said in her public video.

The video went viral after Chaya Raichik, a right-wing commentator who posts on social media under the moniker “Libs of TikTok,” disseminated it. Several Republican leaders also weighed in, including Uthmeier, who said: “The Florida Board of Nursing should yank this vile person’s license, immediately. She doesn’t belong anywhere near patients.”

Days later, DOH suspended her license with an emergency order for unprofessional conduct, which includes “using abusive, threatening or foul language in front of a patient or directing such language toward a patient.”

In his recommendation dated Sept. 1, Judge Robert Cohen with the Florida Division of Administrative Hearings said the Board of Nursing should reprimand Lawler, fine her $250, undergo continuing education to include a course on social media use and, if available, pay back the costs of investigation and prosecution of the case.

Julie Gallagher, Lawler’s attorney, told the News Service of Florida she would be filing exceptions to the recommended order.

“We’re disappointed in the decision because the rule she was charged under required the foul language to be said in front of the patient or directed at a patient, and no one who was a patient saw it, and in our view they didn’t prove she said those comments directed to a patient or in front of a patient,” Gallagher said.

STORY OF THE WEEK:

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, as he campaigns for election, expands Florida crackdown on big tech companies over its accessibility and use by children.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

“We’ve spent years working to help people buy homes. But buying the home is only half the challenge. We also need to make sure families can afford to keep the homes they worked so hard to purchase.” — Florida Realtors President Chuck Bonfiglio Jr., on his group putting $10 million into a political committee backing Amendment 3, which asks voters to increase the homestead property tax exemption.

by Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida