The Florida Roundup - Florida’s laws for kids and social media, fact-checking and media literacy, weekly news briefing

Episode Date: January 10, 2025

This week on The Florida Roundup, we spoke with Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Howard Hepburn about how students and teachers are adapting to new cell phone restrictions in school (02:20). Then, we spoke with Rep. Toby Overdorf who is one of the sponsors of a new law that bans children 14 and under from accessing social media platforms (11:19). Plus, with news of Facebook doing away with fact-checking, we have a conversation about media literacy with Alex Mahadevan, director of MediaWise at the Poynter Institute (27:06). Later, we bring you the latest news of the week including an update on Florida’s record-breaking low temperatures from Meteorologist Megan Borowski (37:30), a look at how undocumented immigrants in Central Florida are preparing for a new Trump administration (41:29) and more.

Florida Navigator Program provides confidential assistance for Floridians looking to explore health care coverage within the federal health insurance marketplace. Open enrollment ends January 15th, 877-813-9115 or coveringflorida.org. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Thanks for being here. Now, be honest. Have you swiped,

liked or scrolled today? Yeah, sure you have. We all have, right? And as long as you're at least 14 years old, you still can in Florida. As long as you're not doing it in a Florida public school classroom, you still can. But if someone is younger than 14 or in a public school classroom, social media is banned in Florida thanks to two state laws. The newest took effect at the first of the year. Social media platforms are prohibited from letting a child under 14 in Florida to create an account. Social media sites also have to close any accounts for someone younger than 14 years old. Now, this law is being challenged, and a court hearing is scheduled next month.

A separate law that went into effect six months ago bans the use of cell phones during class in a public school. Some school districts have gone even further and banned students from using their cell phones the entire school day. Now these laws are Florida's answers to concerns about the effects social media can have on the mental health of kids. In the meantime, a major social media company this week announced it would stop fact-checking posts. Facebook and Instagram instead will rely on other users to moderate content and spot inaccuracies. Florida lawmakers have passed laws restricting certain people, kids, from social media. One of the largest social media platforms

is removing restrictions on what users can say. Now, parents, what are the rules around your house for social media? For everybody, how should social media be managed for kids? And with the rules changing here in Florida, who should make those rules 305 995 1800 is our phone number 305 995 1800 you can send us an email the inbox is open radio at the Florida roundup dot o-r-g radio at the Florida roundup dot org your emails and calls are coming up now Florida public schools were the first in the nation to have a ban on students from using what the law calls wireless communication devices during class time. It's been about four months now

since the ban became effective. And with kids returning to school this week across the state after a holiday break that no doubt many spent on those wireless communication devices, we wanted to check in with the school district that went further than state law. Broward County Public Schools banned phones for the entire day. Howard Hepburn is the superintendent in Broward County. Mr. Superintendent, thank you for your time. How did the first few months of the cell phone ban go in Broward County Public Schools? Well, there were some rocky roads in implementation for those first couple of months, but we expected that and we wanted to come in and provide some grace. We gave a two-week grace period before we actually implemented the policy

and used that as an education campaign just to let our parents, our students, our faculty, and staff know so they understand the policy and then start finding some alternative things that students could do besides utilize their cell phones. The student body in Broward County Public Schools K-12 is about a quarter of a million students. According to data that was shared with your school board, fewer than 1,000 violations of this policy were found during the fall. Was the ban necessary given so few violations?

Well, the violations that you would see from our data from the fall wouldn't be about so much about utilizing your cell phone. It's more about probably open defiance. So if you ask a kid to put their cell phone up and then something else happens, or they may be using the wrong type of language, disrespectful language to that person, or something turned into an aggressive situation, they shouldn't have to. What you're saying then is there were more than a thousand violations of the policy, but just fewer than a thousand kind of incidents that led to perhaps something else. Yes, correct. I see. Correct. Okay. You surveyed students and parents and faculty in

the fall. You found about half of parents said the policy had no impact on their child's learning experience. About a third of students said it had a negative impact on their learning experience. Is that cost worth it? Well, I tend to lean on the side of the educator with that because I expect students to say it has no impact or a negative impact. And sometimes parents are in tune to our environment in our buildings as much as our teachers and our staff are. And so most of the teacher says it does have a positive impact on our students' education and their learning opportunities in the building. So leaning on our educators in the building and really understanding their needs as an educator, as an instructor, and in their environment and the changes they're seeing in their students when they're providing high levels of instruction. You know, you have teachers saying, hey, students are having deeper conversations now. They're not diving into their pockets or their backpack trying to answer a tweet or a text or something like that.

They're more engaged in instruction. So I think those are some of the benefits that we're seeing with listening to our instructors and our educational leaders in our buildings. The students in the survey said that the ban has made school more stressful. More stressful. Do you laugh that off because it's students self-reporting about their lack of smartphone access? Yes. I have kids at home, as you do, and many other people do. And when we try to take their cell phone and limit their cell phone use for whatever they do, they're going to say they're having a bad day because they don't have their cell phone. Yeah, that conversation never goes well, Mr. Superintendent. It never goes well.

No. It never goes well. So I expect that type of comment from our students. Hopefully over time it changes when they see the benefits of that, when they start interacting differently with each other, when they start interacting differently with people who they want to take advantage of future opportunities. You know, many of our business leaders that I have conversations with are always asking us, hey, what can you do to help improve the soft skills of our students? Those are the essential things that are missing when they're coming to us as adults. And our students have an

opportunity to really hone those soft skills because they're socializing with each other differently. They're looking at each other. They're shaking hands with adults. They're shaking hands with kids. So I expect those comments because this is an abrupt change. They've had cell phones for a very, very long time. The state law that the school district responded to, and many school districts across the state were required to respond to, bans the use of wireless communication devices during the classroom

unless instructed by the teacher. The Broward County schools went further, your school board went further, to ban devices in the classroom, in the hallways, even during lunch. Is there any appetite to rethink that blanket restriction? The majority of the board decided to stick with the current cell phone policy. So they did entertain it. They decided to stick with the current cell phone policy while staff collects data throughout the year. And then we'll have that conversation again at the end of the year and review the data, correlating data that we can collect to see how it's affecting our students and affecting their performance in the classroom. All of this, of course, is happening

in a larger cultural and societal conversation, particularly around social media and its impacts on young people, teenagers. There's a new state law that bans Florida kids under 14 from having a social media account. So essentially no elementary or middle schoolers could have a TikTok or a Facebook, and they probably don't have a Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat account, for instance. There's a legal challenge to that law that is going to court next month. This effort, and then the law banning cell phone use during instructional time in public schools, is this effort to restrict the access of children to social media. Mr. Superintendent, do you think these are the best ways to address the potential harmful

effects of social media in teens? So I tell you this, and this is from my experience as an assistant principal and a principal at many levels. And I remember when phones became smartphones versus when they were just flip phones and all you could probably do at the most is text. And I saw the abrupt change when students had access to social media. You can go on social media and you can be whoever you want to be. Right. There are some good intentions there, but there's many nefarious intents to be somebody that you're not, to be aggressive, to say things to somebody that

you would never say to them in person. And as a result, we saw more negative interactions between kids to the point where there were physical altercations, there were cyberbullying that would extend into the physical space. So I'm not going to sit here and say that this is the best course of action. There needs to be a course of action to really take a step back and create an environment where our kids can socialize in a positive manner that's going to be a contributing factor to their ongoing success as an adult. How do you find the balance as a professional educator and leader, Mr. Superintendent,

in the effort in Florida toward parental rights in education, on one hand, that we've seen over the past several years. And on the other hand, the legislature, I think, arguably taking away rights for parents and telling social media platforms, you cannot allow anybody in Florida under the age of 14 on the platform, even if mom and dad say it's okay. Well, I can't speak for the parental rights outside of our classroom roles and our classroom hours, right? I can only speak to what we do within the confinements of the day when we have our kids in the classroom. And I think every educator or the majority of them will attest to social media and cell phone use becoming a distraction when they talk

about the learning process and students being fully engaged in that. So it's more about taking away that distraction. It's more about helping students reconnect with each other in a positive way socially so they can have a meaningful educational experience. Howard Hepburn is the Broward County Public Schools Superintendent. Superintendent Hepburn, thank you for your attention in the conversation here. Much appreciated. Thank you.

You're listening to the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. 305-995-1800 is our phone number live on this Friday across the state. 305-995-1800. Our email inbox is open as well. Radio at thefloridaroundup.org. Radio at the at the Florida Roundup dot org. Juliet sent us a note. Great show on the topic of digital and technology impact on teens. Juliet, thanks. We think it's important here certainly to talk about this. And it is social media and kids in Florida because this new year brings a new effort to protect children. This new law went into effect 10 days ago. Social media platforms are banned now from allowing anyone under 14 in Florida to sign up for an account. And social media companies are supposed to cancel accounts that are already existing for

kids under 14. Now, this law faces two legal challenges now, and the state said it won't enforce the law until the outcome of a court hearing next month. So do you support banning social media sites from allowing young kids from signing up for accounts? What protections should they have if they do? When did you or your kids get on social media? And what keeps you scrolling and swiping? 305-995-1800. 305-995-1800. Representative Toby Over overdorf is with us a republican member of the house of representatives and a co-sponsor of that law that went into effect on january 1st representative welcome back to the program and happy new year happy new year to you thank you so much for having me yeah great to have you back so i mentioned two legal challenges to this new law the attorney

general's office said back in the fall that it would not enforce this law as the state awaits the outcome of the February hearing. Do you agree with that decision not to enforce this law immediately? Of course, I support the Attorney General and the decisions that she and her office are making. So one of these legal challenges argues that the law violates First Amendment rights of minors and adults because the law bans a certain age group and then requires age verification by adults before exercising their First Amendment rights. I assume you think this law will stand up to constitutional examination. Is that correct? Yes, I do. We did an exhaustive research and search on the constitutional rights associated with the parameters of this law. And we absolutely feel that this will stand up and we would not have put something into law if we felt that this was an area that would not pass the constitutional mustard.

Yeah. Why do you think it passes the constitutional examination for the First Amendment? for the First Amendment? Well, first of all, as we're talking about age verification and for all intents and purposes, we're talking about pornography in this case here. I do not know anywhere within our Constitution that it is a right at a certain, or a right at all to be viewing pornography. It is certainly a right to happiness and that type of stuff. And if you find that happiness, well, I guess that is what you're doing. However, we have laws in the books already that deal with age verification. In other words, if a 10-year-old walks into a store and wants to buy a Playboy or whatever else there may be out there, that particular individual would be stopped and

would be required to show that they are at least 18 years old. In fact, that happens with cigarettes and obviously with alcohol and firearms and a whole bunch of other items. So that age verification side of it. Additionally, we have age verification right now for alcohol purchases and ammunition purchases online as well. So this is a First Amendment argument, though, not a Second Amendment argument that some of these critics are making regarding this particular law. Why does banning a 12-year-old from signing up for an Instagram account pass First Amendment examination? In those cases, the First Amendment is slated towards adults, is slated towards an 18-year-old. And the U.S. put in the statement that 16 and 17-year-olds would still be able to. So we're basically following federal law.

I'm sorry, the federal law being not the Constitution, but some other federal law you're referring to? Additional federal law regarding social media. That is correct. Is that the child protection federal law? Yes, sir. Yes, exactly. Okay. Some of the features that are identified as addictive in this legislation include infant scrolling, push notifications, autoplay, live streaming. The argument was made during the legislative debate that this law was not about content, but about features. These features, though, they're used by internet services that are not social media, right? Like Disney Plus and online games, even news organizations.

But those are carved out from this legislation, correct? Well, there's a lot of different items that you're putting in there. First of all, there are certainly some things that are, whether it be on our televisions or otherwise, that certainly do have some of these characteristics, but not all the characteristics. We also wanted to make sure that we're putting the ability to screen themselves back to the social media companies. Look, if they change the algorithms, if they change the manner in which they're doing push notifications, then all of a sudden they do not meet the content of the law, and therefore they could be allowed to move ahead with an account. However, we're not seeing any appetite for change from these businesses.

You and your fellow lawmakers passed laws toward parental rights in public education over the past several sessions. How do you think this ban on social media platforms for children under 14 in Florida recognizes parental rights? Well, I believe it goes right to the heart of it in that a parent can now make the decision if they would like to have their their child who that is 14 or 15 on social media or not. And it also gives the parent the right on the enforcement side directly back to that we have here in Florida, and actually go ahead and sue the social media company. Yeah. It does allow for 14 and 15-year-olds to sign up for those accounts with the consent of a parent or guardian. How is parental or guardian status verified, though? Again, that is something that we put back to the social media platform. And instead of telling them exactly how they should do it, I mean, these are very smart

people. And if they would like to comply with the law, they'll find a way to get that done. What responsibilities do you think representative social media platforms have for what users do on their platforms? Well, now we're back to, again, a First Amendment right and the ability to express yourself. Well, to be clear, right, a social media platform is a private company, so it's not really subject to the First Amendment unless the government tells the social media platform what to do. Again, now we're talking recent decisions by Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook, or whether you look at Elon Musk's decision with Twitter and the content that's allowed there. You're absolutely correct in that it's a business decision associated with that.

But again, why are we even in a First Amendment discussion here when we're talking about overall issues with this particular law on HB3, if you're saying it's all private companies? Well, so it's not me saying that. It just is. And it's the state of Florida that passed this law, as opposed to Mark Zuckerberg coming up with a policy on his own. Understood. Representative, we'll leave it there. Appreciate your time today. Have a great New Year. Understood. email us radio at thefloridaroundup.org. Radio at thefloridaroundup.org. More on social media still to come here on The Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station.

Covering Florida Navigator Program provides confidential assistance for Floridians looking to explore health care coverage within the federal health insurance marketplace. Open enrollment ends January 15th. 877-813-9115 or coveringflorida.org. This is the Florida Roundup. Thanks for being along with us this week. I'm Tom Hudson. We've got a special edition of this program coming up on February 7th that we're excited to talk to you about. The Florida Roundup will be live in person from Zoo Miami. Now, it kind of makes sense if you think about it, right? News here in Florida can be pretty, pretty wild sometimes. So what better place to talk about it than Zoo, Miami? That's

exactly what we're going to do. State lawmakers will be meeting soon. Big agenda in front of them, condo reforms, a leaner state budget, escalating insurance costs. We're going to talk about politics with one of the top Democrats in the state, the mayor of increasingly Republican Miami-Dade County. And yes, of course, we'll talk about animals at the zoo. Florida is at the center of the often dangerous and illegal exotic pet trade. And of course, invasive species have been threatening our native environment. So we may even have some animal friends stop by right here for you on the radio. We'd love for you to stop by in person if you can join us live February 7th at noon, Zoo Miami in Dade County. What better way to spend a Friday afternoon in February? You can sign up at WLRN.org. This week we're talking about

social media, children, and Florida laws. 305-995-1800. Gordon has been listening in on line one from Gainesville. You've been patient, Gordon. Thanks for your time. You are on the radio. You're welcome. Thanks for having me on this morning. I'm just looking for a little clarification on the Republican overall sort of overarching position on this. It seems time and again they've said we're going to have less concentrated government, smaller government, and transfer more power and more responsibility for the raising of children or other issues to individuals and yet here's another example where they're they're not doing

that they're doing quite the opposite they're creating a law that uh takes away some of the power for parents to decide how they want to raise their kids it seems to me like they they're all for parents being empowered in individual decisions as long as they agree with those decisions and when they don't then they want a law that contradicts that. So that's my question for the Republicans. Yeah, Gordon, I appreciate you waiting and adding your two cents here in our conversation. Rachel has been listening to the conversation as well from Orlando. Go ahead, Rachel.

You're on the radio now. Hi, thanks for having me. You're on the radio now. Hi, thanks for having me. I have a 12-year-old daughter who, about a year ago, we traded in YouTube Kids for an Instagram account. And her argument was that on Instagram she can follow artists, she's an artist herself, and that she can connect with her friends. And for me, I was thinking less scrolling, perhaps this would be better than a platform like YouTube Kids. scrolling, perhaps this would be better than a platform like YouTube Kids. Now I'm wondering for some resources, if this law goes into effect, how can I break it to my daughter that the law now says that you have to be 14 to have an Instagram account? Well, as a parent, if you can

verify your parental status and adulthood status, which I'm assuming, Rachel, you're an adult, according to this law, you will be able to approve an Instagram account for your daughter or for any child as long as they are 14 or 15 years old under this law. Under 14, however, the law is a ban. Social media companies are not able to allow those 14-year-old, 13-year-old or younger in Florida from creating the accounts. Angela is with us in Palm Beach County. Go ahead, Angela, you're on the radio. Hi there. Someone did just touch on this, but parents are the ones here who can make a difference. My parents read to me from the time I was probably a baby. You know, babies like looking at pictures too. My kids have done the same with theirs.

Everyone should know, and this isn't coming out loud and clear either, your brain works differently staring at a screen and looking at words on a page. And if kids are read to, they go to school familiar with words on a page, not that all schools now are using books, and that gets them ready for education. I don't know why this isn't happening. My impression is that parents like looking at their devices also, but they do have time. And a parent who says they don't have 10 minutes at night to read to their children, I'm sorry, I just, I don't believe that. Angela, go ahead, make your point, please.

Library system, I think I've ever seen. Fabulous children's rooms. And sometimes I see people at the library and the kids are looking on a screen with their parents. And sometimes I say, gee, would you like me to take your kids down the hall to the children's room? And it works. So I'd like to hear that message getting out loud and clear. Thank you for listening. I appreciate it. Thank you for speaking with us, Angela. Much appreciated. Yeah, I'm a big believer in reading to kids. We did it certainly in our house. I will share with you, I was guilty of staring at my screen today on the train into work and there was one gentleman on the train who had a book, a physical book with actual pages that he was flipping through. It was an odd

scene here in the 21st century, I'll be honest with you. Lily in Jacksonville has been patient on line six. Lily, we wanted to hear from you. Go ahead. You are on the radio. Go ahead, Lily. You are on the radio. Go ahead, Lily. Okay. Thank you. So my comment is basically pretty simple. I think that this is a futile effort, a big waste of time. The Republican representative mentioned that these are very smart companies who can figure out how to verify constituents' information. Well, these are very smart kids. Kids are known to get around all sorts of things with fake IDs, getting people to a friend of a friend of a friend to quote unquote vouch for their age that they meet the requirements. So I feel that this is just a waste of time and a roundabout way to get at the whole TikTok China algorithm thing.

When Google and YouTube and Disney, as you mentioned before, they all have their addictive things that are pretty much the same. I think it all boils down to parents being parents. You need to be engaged with your kids. I think that this effort and money that's going into this, whatever this is, this movement to abandon ID these kids could be better spent at engaging students in the classroom, finding why they're not paying attention, keeping our public schools open, investing in the kids. So I think it's all just going to boil down to people being engaged with these students. If they really want to do it,

if they really want to have a Facebook, if they really want to have an Instagram, they'll find a way to do it. Lily, we appreciate you adding your voice to the conversation there from Jacksonville. Mikey sent us this note. First of all, why 14? Mikey asks, what's so magical about that age? He wonders as he emails us at radio at the Florida Roundup dot o r g. Jazz writes, I'm of two minds about these bans. On the one hand, I grew up without a phone or social media.

Knowing issues without distraction, bullying, self-image that it can cause for kids, I understand the idea behind it. On the other hand, having a phone and the ability for instant contact with a child's adult can be critical for safety and family issues. Yeah, that's a clear point of tension here, particularly when it comes to the use of those wireless communication devices in Florida classrooms, as Florida law refers to them. Well, here we are talking about social media now, and the role continues to evolve of social media in our lives, how we connect, how we get information, what we know, what we share or think we know. Having confidence in that last part actually may be getting more difficult. This week, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and Threads announced it is changing how it reviews what users post. We built a lot of complex systems to moderate content.

But the problem with complex systems is they make mistakes. Even if they accidentally censor just 1% of posts, that's millions of people. And we've reached a point where it's just too many mistakes and too much censorship. Now that's Mark Zuckerberg. He's the founder and the boss at Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and Threads. The changes mean that Facebook will no longer have professionals making sure what people post is true.

We're going to get rid of fact checkers and replace them with community notes similar to X starting in the U.S. Now, as Florida passes laws aimed at protecting kids online and passed a law banning social media companies from kicking politicians off their platforms, one of the original social media sites here is changing how it moderates what you post and see. Alex Mahadovan is the director of MediaWise. It's a digital media literacy project by the Poynter Institute based in St. Petersburg,

and Poynter's PolitiFact has a partnership with Meta to check potential misinformation on Facebook's news feed. Alex, thanks for your patience and welcome to the program. Yeah, happy to be here. You heard a lot of voices there speaking throughout Florida about some of these social media efforts here in the state and we'll continue to take your calls at 305-995-1800. Meta here, Alex, is going to return to relying on other users to fact check each other. X has used this system for a while. So is crowdsourcing effective in separating fact from fiction? Well, I've spent about the last four years studying X's community notes, which was

originally called Birdwatch, actually a pretty innovative system. I won't dig into details too much, but what I would challenge anyone to do is check out X, check out maybe their own X feed or just open up X, and tell me, do they see truthful posts? The answer would be no. I mean, if you look at X, a place that is basically meta is looking to, it's become a hive of misinformation of hate speech. It is essentially unusable at this point. But is that the price of free expression? Well, I think there's some that would say that. But what I would counter with is that fact checking is free speech. Essentially, what the voices against Facebook's third party fact checking want you to believe is that they

say fact checking censorship, but it isn't. I mean, the way the system functioned is fact checkers simply added context to harmful misinformation. I mean, think of the awful things we saw coming out after, you know, the COVID-19 pandemic really picked up. January 6th was fomented and planned and it all came about on social media. And part of that was in Facebook groups. So here's how Mark Zuckerberg of Meta this week explained why it was dropping formal fact checking from the social media website. The fact-checkers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they've created, especially in the U.S. So how do you hear that, Alex, that fact-checkers, according to Zuckerberg, are politically biased and have destroyed more trust than

they've created in America? Well, I can only laugh at that because, you know, there's actually a lot of people who complain about fact checkers being too unbiased and trying to both sides things, you know, it seems like fact checkers really can't win here. But the bottom line is, is that to be a member of Facebook's third party fact checking program, which means being a member of the international fact checking networkcking Network based at Poynter, you have to be nonpartisan. You have to be a signatory of a code of principles that says you are nonpartisan. And I got to say, I am a director of MediaWise. We are signatory, and we are militantly nonpartisan.

Everything we say or do, we write, we create. The scripts that we do with our team fact-checking network, they are combed through with a fine-to tooth comb to make sure there is no bias present. So the way it functions is it just doesn't make sense. You know, it doesn't pass muster what Mark Zuckerberg said there. What is an effective way to sort and flag misinformation and outright fiction in our social media feeds? Well, I think, you know, in a hybrid approach that includes professional fact checkers and like a really good trust and safety moderating team that is kind of catching that harmful misinformation that might, you know, lead to the next J6 or we just had our first bird flu death, you know, we've got a maybe a public health emergency coming about.

So professional fact-checkers in tandem with crowdsource fact-checking, I think it's a pretty cool, innovative system. And the crowd, you know, users can kind of help catch misinformation that might not be, you know, might not be considered harmful but is untruthful. So you've got those two working in tandem. It's really effective. And then, you know, me being a media literacy professional, I think that, you know, kids, uh, in middle school and in elementary school need to learn how to navigate the internet and,

and how to kind of put the skills that fact checkers use to work themselves. So it's kind of like we need the platforms to focus on trust and safety and then, um, individuals to understand how to separate fact from fiction themselves. We require drivers in Florida to have a learner's permit for at least a year before they get a driver's license. I know this because my youngest son just turned 16 years old this week, so very familiar with that ramp up to letting go of the steering wheel, so to speak. Let me remind folks that you are listening to the Florida Rondo from your Florida Public Radio station. sort of speak. Let me remind folks that you are listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida public radio station. I'm Tom Hudson. We're talking about social media fact-checking here

in Florida. We would love to hear from you. Radio at thefloridaroundup.org. Alex Madivan is with us, director of MediaWise, a digital media literacy project by the Poynter Institute based in St. Petersburg, Florida. Petersburg, Florida. Alex, I wanted to talk to you a little bit about fact checking and geography, because with the announcement this week from Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, geography was brought up. Meta will still have people watching over posts, moderating, content moderators, they call them, and looking for illegal activity, especially. But those folks will no longer physically be based in California, where Facebook is headquartered. We're going to move our trust and safety and content moderation teams out of

California, and our U.S.-based content review is going to be based in Texas. As we work to promote free expression, I think that will help us build trust to do this work in places where there is less concern about the bias of our teams. So what role, Alex, could geography play in decisions that these content moderators will play? Well, I got to laugh again, and I apologize for seemingly making light of this. But, you know, when times are really sad and disturbing, sometimes you got to laugh. What I will say about that is there are already plenty of content moderators that are based in Texas. You know, I mean, Facebook has contracted with content moderation firms all over the place, but Texas was definitely one of those places. So, you know, he's not moving everyone there, so to speak.

Yeah. Is this a loss for Florida, given the efforts by some lawmakers and Governor DeSantis and the so-called free state of Florida as it relates to free speech? by some lawmakers and Governor DeSantis and the so-called free state of Florida as it relates to free speech? It could be. I mean, again, I can't speak for why he picked Texas, but you got to imagine if he's trying to move his trust and safety team to be more like X,

maybe he's emulating Elon Musk, you know what I mean? But yeah, I mean, I think DeSantis selling Florida as the free state, you know, and maybe it would have been, it behooved him to go to Mark and say, hey, you know, we can have a lot of quote unquote free speech moderators here, even though that doesn't really make a lot of sense. So some media analysts here, Alex, think that disinformation may not be the problem, that it's simply a symptom of this crisis of belonging. It's simply a symptom of this crisis of belonging. That's what it's been called, crisis of belonging. And media, news media and others should focus this in this binary, you either do fact checking, or you do free speech, you do fact checking, or you, you know, community building conversations. And the thing is, fact checking is an essential part of journalism, which is an essential part of how our democracy functions.

So, you know, I don't think we should ever let go of fact checking because there's no, there is, we should be treating the symptoms of isolation of polarization of all of the ills that are affecting our democracy. Yeah, sure. Missing disinformation may just be a symptom of that, but we ought to treat it because it's a symptom that also breeds more harm. You know, Alex,

we appreciate your time. Thanks so much for sharing your expertise with us here. Thanks for having me. Alex Mahadovan is the director of MediaWise, a digital media literacy project by the Pointer Institute based in St. Petersburg, Florida. And speaking of connecting, you can connect with us live in person. February 7th, we're going to do a live Florida roundup from Zoo Miami in Dade County. We'd love to see you in sunny South Florida.

At least we hope it's sunny. February 7th, we'll be talking about politics. We'll be talking about exotic pets. We'll be talking about evasive species live from Zoo Miami, February 7th. Tickets are free, but we would like you to sign up so we know that you're coming. You can find information at WLRN.org. Stick around. We've got plenty more to come here on the Florida Roundup as you're listening to it from your Florida public radio station.

Covering Florida Navigator Program provides confidential assistance for Floridians looking to explore health care coverage within the federal health insurance marketplace. Open enrollment ends January 15th. 877-813-9115 or coveringflorida.org. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Thanks for being here this week. Freeze, frost, and falling iguanas. Ah, it's wintertime here in the Sunshine State.

This week, we've seen the coldest weather throughout the state. In about two years, Megan Borowski is a meteorologist with our partner, the Florida Public Radio Emergency Network. Happy New Year, Megan. Nice to talk to you again. Good to talk to you too, Tom. Happy New Year. Any records set with this chill we experienced? You know, I've been going through from every National Weather Service office trying to see if we broke any records. And as far as I can tell so far, there are no records that have been broken, but it certainly is the coldest we've been in quite some time. The panhandle got down to the lower 20s

and parts of Central and South Florida even made it into the 30s. So not the coldest, but cold for, you know, in some time. Upper 40s down here in South Florida. How widespread have these frost and freeze advisories been? Looks like NWS in Jacksonville, north central Florida, really has been the ground zero for those frost and freeze alerts just because we've had temperatures and wind chills in the 20s and teens up there. We had a few frost alerts as far south as central Florida, but not into south Florida. so what conditions

allowed all this cold weather to drop here into the sunshine state it's all about ridges and troughs in the atmosphere that's what you learn about early on in your classes as a meteorologist and it was the same you know that that's what happened here actually if you recall on a new year's day we had quite warm temperatures record highs were broken. And that was ridging or high pressure before we had a storm system scoot on through our area. So amplification in the jet stream helps to push in warmer air from the south. But then behind it, as you get a trough moving on over through, that almost opens up a pathway for Arctic air to sink from the Arctic southward into the continental United States. And we had a particularly strong front move on through earlier in the week that helped this just polar air mass to sink on south into Florida. It has been a bit of a chilly start to 2025, but nothing like what friends and family are experiencing out on the west coast of the U.S.

and Southern California with the wildfires there. What role does the weather here, the weather pattern that contributed to our chilly temperatures playing in the conditions that Southern California has been experiencing these deadly wildfires? Yeah, so it's all in some way interconnected. We had our cold front move on through and high pressure built over the plains and even as far west as the Rocky Mountain West. And with that strong high pressure east of California, they actually also had low pressure directly off the coast. And that helped to set up a gradient that would really create an event called the Santa Ana Winds. And we saw those extreme winds develop, extreme dry conditions as well. And that helped to set up a prime bed for those fires to be triggered and to expand and continue as unfortunately they have.

And for comparison's sake, these Santa Ana winds are hurricane force winds. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. We could have gusts over 100 miles an hour because we have a tight pressure gradient. We've got those winds coming down off the mountains. The air is heating up as they're coming down off the mountains. And it is just a scary sight once those fires start to ignite. Southern California is still experiencing those high winds. What are those conditions set up in terms of a weather pattern for us here in Florida in the next week or so? Well, it looks like for us, really, over the short term, there's another storm system that's

going to be riding on through behind our high pressure that build up over the plains. And that will create a brief warm-up for us today, here on Friday, some showers possibly into early Saturday. But then we've got cold temperatures again for the weekend. We're really going to be riding these ridges and troughs, Tom, for the next, you know, at least couple of weeks. And that will help to bring in cooler temperatures for us. And potentially we could still have a tight pressure gradient out in the west, which is not good news.

Keep the sweaters handy here in Florida. Megan Borowski, meteorologist with our news partner, Florida Public Radio Emergency Network. Donald Trump will be moving from Florida to the White House in a little over a week now. He has pledged on his first day to launch what he's called the largest deportation program in American history. Florida has the third largest number of immigrants without legal status. It's almost one million people, according to data from the Nonpartisan Center for Migration Studies of New York. That's about one out of every 23 people here. So as that day one approaches, Floridians without legal status and their families are trying to do what they can to prepare. Joe Burns with our partner Central Florida

Public Media reports. No matter the politics, the threat of deportation is real for many people here. It's definitely on the top of our list when it comes to a conversation at the dinner table. That's 23-year-old Salvador Rosas, who works with youth at Hope Community Center in Apopka. He and his two younger brothers were born here, but his parents are undocumented immigrants from Mexico. Basically, we're trying to figure out, you know, what's going to happen next. We have that huge fear of maybe it could end up causing separation between the family, what's going to end up happening to my parents, what ends up happening to my youngest sibling. But even before President Trump takes office, his election has made them more afraid to travel out of state. Rosas says his folks scrapped a trip to Chicago and won't be celebrating their

25th wedding anniversary with family there. And it made me think, my mom was just a child at that moment, just trying to see her mom again. And it made me think, my mom was just a child at that moment, just trying to see her mom again. And it gives me that same feeling if it was to happen to me. Their family is one of about 4 million mixed-status families in America, according to the American Immigration Council. And in Florida, a quarter million underage U.S. citizens live with an undocumented parent. The people is scared. Angela Eisenman leads the nonprofit Mexican Coalition of Florida and helps women in crisis at the Mexican Consulate in Orlando. The people is scared because first, the most important for them is the children.

They are scared if they deport them, who going to be with the children here? At Hope Community Center, Executive Director Felipe Sosa-Lazabeles' Immigration Department will be training more staff and volunteers in January to help undocumented immigrants prepare. So we work with them on creating a plan for their children, creating a plan for their finances, creating a plan for different aspects of their lives, including making sure that they have a power of attorney

for someone else that they trust. What if a mom is arrested at work or detained on the road, for instance? She'll need someone approved to pick up the kids from school and to help make sure they're not lost in the system. In Apopka, I'm Joe Burns. And I'm Tom Hudson. You're listening to the Florida Roundup

from your Florida Public Radio station. The new year began with a new law that bans sleeping outside in most places here in the Sunshine State. It's an effort to crack down on encampments of people who are homeless. The law allows residents to sue their local governments if they're not enforcing the ban. Reporter Joshua Ceballos with our partner WLRN in South Florida says municipalities now face the threat of mounting lawsuits if they don't arrest or remove homeless residents. A lot of experts in the homelessness field that I've spoken to are really worried that this is going to be a perfect storm where municipalities are going to be arresting homeless people because if not, they're going to be paying huge fees in legal fees. In Central Florida,

Orange County commissioners voted four to two to empower local police to make an arrest in order to comply with the new law. But officials insisted this week that their priority is providing services instead. Commissioner Kelly Martinez-Semrad said she could not vote to comply with the state law that amounts to what she said was cruel and unusual punishment. The way that I look at this state law is that it does criminalize homelessness, and that by presenting a resolution like this, we're complying with criminalizing homelessness. But if those outside fail to leave the property, local police and deputies can arrest them, and the penalty is a fine of up to $500 and up to 60 days in jail. One of the themes that helped Donald Trump win re-election was his drill, baby, drill. But President Joe Biden this week made a temporary ban of drilling along Florida's Gulf Coast permanent. Here's Steve Newborn from our partner station WUSF in Tampa.

Drilling had already been banned in much of the Gulf off Florida's coast, but that was set to expire in certain areas in seven years. There's been bipartisan support for a permanent ban, but Congress has yet to approve it. Stephanie Kettle is with the Florida office of the non-profit environmental group Healthy Gulf. She says Floridians have fought for decades to protect their beaches, views, and natural resources from offshore drilling. It's extremely important for us to continue to have these long-term protections. Incoming President Trump has vowed to overturn Biden's executive order,

but a recent court ruling says the president doesn't have that authority, so overturning it would likely take an act of Congress. I'm Steve Newborn in Tampa. But just a day after President Biden made that ban permanent, President-elect Trump said he will throw it out. I will reverse it immediately. It'll be done immediately. And we will drill, baby, drill. We're going to be drilling in a lot of other locations, and the energy costs are going to come way down. While the incoming president did not explicitly mention drilling along Florida's Gulf Coast, he did say he will rename that big body of water to the west of the peninsula.

We're going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring that covers a lot of territory. The Gulf of America, what a beautiful name. Now, the idea to rename the Gulf goes back at least 15 years. You remember that theme? Late night host Stephen Colbert, as his right-wing alter ego, hosted the Colbert Report on Comedy Central. In the spring of 2010, he wanted to change the name to Gulf of America, but not because of any patriotism or international diplomatic negotiating tactic.

It was weeks after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill began. We broke it, we buy it, Colbert said 15 years ago. Desi Lydic on Comedy Central's Daily Show tried out the new name this week. I guess Gulf of America does have a ring to it, as in there was another horrific oil spill in the Gulf of America. That is our program for today. It is produced by WLRN Public Media in Miami and WUSF in Tampa by Bridget O'Brien and Grayson Doctor. WLRN's Vice President of Radio is Peter Meritz. The program's Technical Director is M.J. Smith.

Engineering help each and every week from Doug Peterson, Ernesto Jay, and Jackson Harp. Katie Munoz answered our phones. Our theme music is provided by Miami jazz guitarist Aaron Leibos at aaronleibos.com. Don't forget you can join us for a live in-person Florida Roundup February 7th at Zoo Miami in Dade County. You can find ticket information there free, but you can find it all at wlrn.org. Thanks for calling, emailing, listening, and above all, supporting public media in your neighborhood. I'm Tom Hudson. Have a terrific weekend. Covering Florida Navigator Program provides confidential assistance for Floridians looking to explore health care coverage

within the federal health insurance marketplace. Open enrollment ends January 15th. 877-813-9115 or coveringflorida.org.