Fact check: Liberal website changes headline that falsely said DeSantis signed a bill that forces students to register their political views

Washington (CNN)The liberal website Salon has changed a headline that had falsely said a bill signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis forces Florida's students and professors to register their political views with the state. 

The 2021 law does require public colleges and universities in Florida to administer annual surveys on the subject of "intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity." But contrary to the inaccurate initial Salon headline, the law does not require anybody to register their political views. Students and faculty members can decide whether to participate in the surveys, which are anonymous. 

Salon published the headline in June 2021. Its revision on Wednesday, more than a year later, came after the article went viral among some Democrats on Twitter amid talk of a possible DeSantis run for president.

Before Salon's revision, its false claim was promoted this week by variousDemocratic commentators, by Florida agriculture commissioner and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Nikki Fried (who subsequently deleted the tweet that linked to the Salon article), and even by renowned novelist Stephen King, who has more than 6.7 million Twitter followers and has been a harsh critic of DeSantis.

Salon executive editor Andrew O'Hehir said in a Thursday email that while another Salon editor had defended the initial headline back in 2021, the publication recently took another look and concluded that the headline "conveyed a misleading impression of what the Florida law actually said, and did not live up to our editorial standards." Salon changed the headline from "DeSantis signs bill requiring Florida students, professors to register political views with state" to "DeSantis signs bill requiring survey of Florida students, professors on their political views."

DeSantis spokesperson Christina Pushaw said in a Thursday email that her colleagues had unsuccessfully tried to get Salon to change the headline in 2021. She said: "It's good to see that Salon finally changed its false headline after the pushback they received yesterday. It should have happened much sooner. Better yet, the Salon reporter and editors should have read the legislation before writing an article about it (a good practice for journalism, in general!)."

King said in a comment sent by a representative on Friday: "I regret having posted the headline without being more confident the story was correct. Salon is usually more reliable. Twitter is a constant learning experience, and I will try to do better."