United States HR 2635: The Big-Tech Accountability Act of 2023

Bill Text

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118TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION H. R. 2635
To amend section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934 to limit liability
protection provided by such section for providers of social media service,
and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL 17, 2023
Mr. SANTOS introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Energy and Commerce
A BILL
To amend section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934
to limit liability protection provided by such section for
providers of social media service, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘The Big-Tech Account-4
ability Act of 2023’’. 5
SEC. 2. LIMITATION ON LIABILITY FOR PROVIDERS OF SO-6
CIAL MEDIA SERVICE. 7
Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 8
U.S.C. 230) is amended— 9
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(1) by redesignating subsection (f) as sub-1
section (g); and 2
(2) by inserting after subsection (e) the fol-3
lowing: 4
‘‘(f) PROVIDERS OF SOCIAL MEDIA SERVICE.— 5
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Paragraphs (1) and (2) of 6
subsection (c) shall not apply to a provider of a so-7
cial media service that is a company with respect to 8
any information provided through the service by an-9
other information content provider after the date of 10
the enactment of this subsection. 11
‘‘(2) PROHIBITION.— 12
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—It shall be unlawful 13
for a provider of social media service that is a 14
company to de-platform a citizen of the United 15
States after the date this 90 days after the en-16
actment of this subsection on the basis of the 17
social, political, or religious status of such cit-18
izen even if the citizen through the social media 19
service of the provider clearly violates a policy 20
of the company relating to— 21
‘‘(i) hate speech; 22
‘‘(ii) sexual harassment; 23
‘‘(iii) discrimination on the basis of 24
sex, religion, or sexual orientation; or 25
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‘‘(iv) making violent threats, violent 1
speech, or violent declarations. 2
‘‘(B) CIVIL PENALTY.—A provider that 3
violates subparagraph (A) with respect to a cit-4
izen of the United States shall be liable for a 5
civil penalty in an amount of $5,000 for each 6
day that the provider de-platforms the citizen. 7
‘‘(3) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 8
‘‘(A) DE-PLATFORM A CITIZEN OF THE 9
UNITED STATES.—The term ‘de-platform a cit-10
izen of the United States’ means, with respect 11
to an account of the citizen, an action taken 12
to— 13
‘‘(i) decrease engagement with the ac-14
count by users of the service; 15
‘‘(ii) permanently suspend the ac-16
count; or 17
‘‘(iii) restricting the ability of a citizen 18
to provide content through the account. 19
‘‘(B) SOCIAL MEDIA SERVICE.—The term 20
‘social media service’— 21
‘‘(i) means an interactive computer 22
service that— 23
‘‘(I) allows for or hosts virtual 24
facilitation of material, content, or in-25
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formation over the service for the pur-1
pose of facilitating public or wide-2
spread interaction with such material, 3
content, or information; 4
‘‘(II) is meant for public dis-5
course that focuses on communication 6
and expression of ideas or opinions; or 7
‘‘(III) hosts publicly accessible 8
information or content, public or 9
widespread interaction, and content 10
distribution through the service; and 11
‘‘(ii) includes interactive computer 12
service provided by— 13
‘‘(I) Meta; 14
‘‘(II) Facebook; 15
‘‘(III) Twitter; 16
‘‘(IV) Instagram; and 17
‘‘(V) Tik Tok.’’. 18
Æ
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