[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 7014 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 7014

 To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to prohibit online 
    platforms from disseminating political advertisements which are 
  targeted to an individual or to a group of individuals on any basis 
   other than the recognized place in which the individual or group 
                    resides, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 26, 2020

  Ms. Eshoo introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                   Committee on House Administration

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to prohibit online 
    platforms from disseminating political advertisements which are 
  targeted to an individual or to a group of individuals on any basis 
   other than the recognized place in which the individual or group 
                    resides, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Banning Microtargeted Political Ads 
Act''.

SEC. 2. RESTRICTIONS ON DISSEMINATION OF TARGETED POLITICAL 
              ADVERTISEMENTS BY ONLINE PLATFORMS.

    (a) Restrictions.--
            (1) In general.--Title III of the Federal Election Campaign 
        Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30101 et seq.) is amended by adding at 
        the end the following new section:

``SEC. 325. RESTRICTIONS ON DISSEMINATION OF TARGETED POLITICAL 
              ADVERTISEMENTS BY ONLINE PLATFORMS.

    ``(a) Restrictions on Advertisements Targeted at Individuals or at 
Specific Groups of Individuals.--
            ``(1) Restrictions.--A covered online platform or an agent, 
        affiliate, vendor, or other person acting on behalf of such a 
        platform may not target the dissemination of a political 
        advertisement on such platform to an individual or to a 
        specific group of individuals on any basis.
            ``(2) Actions constituting targeting.--A covered online 
        platform or an agent, affiliate, vendor, or other person acting 
        on behalf of such a platform shall be considered to target the 
        dissemination of a political advertisement to an individual or 
        to a specific group of individuals if such platform--
                    ``(A) performs or causes to perform any 
                computational process (including one based on 
                algorithmic models, machine learning, statistical 
                analysis, or other data processing or artificial 
                intelligence techniques) designed to transmit or 
                display the advertisement to a subset of the users of 
                such platform selected based on personal information 
                pertaining to the individuals who make up the subset of 
                users; or
                    ``(B) allows another person to instruct a covered 
                online platform to display the advertisement to a 
                subset of the users of such platform, including by 
                providing to such platform a list of individuals, 
                contact information of individuals, or other personal 
                information that can be used to identify individuals.
    ``(b) Exceptions.--
            ``(1) Targeting to individuals within recognized place.--
        Subsection (a) does not apply to the targeting of the 
        dissemination of a political advertisement to an individual 
        residing in, or to a device located in, a recognized place.
            ``(2) Targeting to individuals giving express consent.--
        Subsection (a) does not apply to the targeting of the 
        dissemination of a political advertisement to an individual 
        if--
                    ``(A) the sponsor of the advertisement provides the 
                covered online platform with a truthful written 
                attestation that the individual has provided express 
                affirmative consent to--
                            ``(i) receive a targeted political 
                        advertisement from the sponsor; and
                            ``(ii) allow the sponsor to disclose 
                        personal information pertaining to the 
                        individual to another person for the purpose of 
                        advertising;
                    ``(B) the attestation includes a statement 
                affirming that the consent provided by the individual 
                was freely given, specific, informed, unambiguous, not 
                received through or by the aid of the covered online 
                platform, and has not been revoked by such individual; 
                and
                    ``(C) the sponsor certifies to the platform that 
                the sponsor permits an individual who provides consent 
                to easily revoke such consent.
    ``(c) Rules of Construction.--
            ``(1) Targeting on random basis.--Nothing in subsection (a) 
        shall be construed to prohibit the dissemination of a political 
        advertisement to an individual or to a specific group of 
        individuals on a random basis, including on a random basis 
        under any of the exceptions described in subsection (b).
            ``(2) Rule of construction for opt-outs.--Nothing in 
        subsection (b) shall be construed to require or authorize a 
        covered online platform, a sponsor of a political 
        advertisement, or an agent, affiliate, vendor, or other person 
        acting on behalf of such a platform or sponsor to disseminate a 
        political advertisement to an individual who has opted out of 
        receiving a political advertisement or any other form of 
        communication from the platform, the sponsor, or any agent, 
        affiliate, vendor, or other person acting on behalf of the 
        platform or sponsor, including opting out of receiving a 
        specific type of advertisement or communication, an 
        advertisement or communication from a particular sponsor, or 
        any other opt-out preference.
    ``(d) Private Right of Action.--
            ``(1) Enforcement by individuals.--
                    ``(A) In general.--Any person alleging a violation 
                of this section by a covered online platform may bring 
                a civil action in any court of competent jurisdiction, 
                State or Federal.
                    ``(B) Relief.--In a civil action brought under this 
                paragraph in which the plaintiff prevails, the court 
                may award--
                            ``(i) an amount not less than $100 and not 
                        greater than $1,000 per violation against any 
                        person who negligently violates a provision of 
                        this section;
                            ``(ii) an amount not less than $500 and not 
                        greater than $5,000 per violation against any 
                        person who recklessly, willfully, or 
                        intentionally violates a provision of this 
                        section;
                            ``(iii) reasonable attorney's fees and 
                        litigation costs; and
                            ``(iv) any other relief, including 
                        equitable or declaratory relief, that the court 
                        determines appropriate.
                    ``(C) Injury in fact.--A violation of this section 
                constitutes a concrete and particularized injury in 
                fact to an individual.
            ``(2) Invalidity of pre-dispute arbitration agreements and 
        pre-dispute joint action waivers.--
                    ``(A) In general.--Notwithstanding any other 
                provision of law, no pre-dispute arbitration agreement 
                or pre-dispute joint action waiver shall be valid or 
                enforceable with respect to a dispute arising under 
                this section.
                    ``(B) Applicability.--Any determination as to 
                whether or how this subsection applies to any dispute 
                shall be made by a court, rather than an arbitrator, 
                without regard to whether such agreement purports to 
                delegate such determination to an arbitrator.
                    ``(C) Definitions.--In this subsection:
                            ``(i) Pre-dispute arbitration agreement.--
                        The term `pre-dispute arbitration agreement' 
                        means any agreement to arbitrate a dispute that 
                        has not arisen at the time of making the 
                        agreement.
                            ``(ii) Pre-dispute joint-action waiver.--
                        The term `pre-dispute joint-action waiver' 
                        means an agreement, whether or not part of a 
                        pre-dispute arbitration agreement, that would 
                        prohibit, or waive the right of, one of the 
                        parties to the agreement to participate in a 
                        joint, class, or collective action in a 
                        judicial, arbitral, administration, or other 
                        forum, concerning a dispute that has not yet 
                        arisen at the time of making the agreement.
                            ``(iii) Dispute.--The term `dispute' means 
                        any claim related to an alleged violation of 
                        this section and between an individual and a 
                        covered organization.
    ``(e) Definitions.--In this section:
            ``(1) Covered online platform.--The term `covered online 
        platform' means any website, web application, mobile 
        application, smart device application, digital application 
        (including a social network, or search engine), or advertising 
        network (including a network disseminating advertisements on 
        another website, web application, mobile application, smart 
        device application, or digital application) that receives 
        payment to disseminate political advertisements, except that 
        such term does not include a website, application, or network 
        (in combination with any subsidiaries and affiliates of such a 
        website, application, or network) that, during the 12-month 
        period ending on the date of the dissemination of the political 
        advertisement involved, collected or processed personal 
        information pertaining to fewer than 50,000,000 individuals.
            ``(2) Indian lands.--
                    ``(A) Indian lands.--In this section, the term 
                `Indian lands' includes--
                            ``(i) any Indian country of an Indian 
                        Tribe, as defined under section 1151 of title 
                        18, United States Code;
                            ``(ii) any land in Alaska owned, pursuant 
                        to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (43 
                        U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), by an Indian Tribe that 
                        is a Native village (as defined in section 3 of 
                        that Act (43 U.S.C. 1602)) or by a Village 
                        Corporation that is associated with an Indian 
                        Tribe (as defined in section 3 of that Act (43 
                        U.S.C. 1602));
                            ``(iii) any land on which the seat of the 
                        Tribal Government is located; and
                            ``(iv) any land that is part or all of a 
                        Tribal designated statistical area associated 
                        with an Indian Tribe, or is part or all of an 
                        Alaska Native village statistical area 
                        associated with an Indian Tribe, as defined by 
                        the Census Bureau for the purposes of the most 
                        recent decennial census.
                    ``(B) Other definitions.--In subparagraph (A)--
                            ``(i) the term `Indian' has the meaning 
                        given the term in section 4 of the Indian Self-
                        Determination and Education Assistance Act (25 
                        U.S.C. 5304);
                            ``(ii) the term `Indian Tribe' has the 
                        meaning given the term `Indian tribe' in 
                        section 4 of the Indian Self-Determination and 
                        Education Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 5304); and
                            ``(iii) the term `Tribal Government' means 
                        the recognized governing body of an Indian 
                        Tribe.
            ``(3) Personal information.--The term `personal 
        information' means any information that is linked or reasonably 
        linkable to a specific individual or a specific device, 
        including de-identified information.
            ``(4) Political advertisement.--The term `political 
        advertisement' means--
                    ``(A) an electioneering communication (as defined 
                in section 304(f)(3));
                    ``(B) an independent expenditure; or
                    ``(C) a public communication that refers to a 
                clearly identified candidate for Federal office 
                (regardless of whether a candidate for State or local 
                office is also mentioned or identified) and that 
                promotes or supports a candidate for that office, or 
                attacks or opposes a candidate for that office 
                (regardless of whether the communication expressly 
                advocates a vote for or against a candidate).
            ``(5) Recognized place.--The term `recognized place' means 
        any of the following:
                    ``(A) Each State, the District of Columbia, the 
                Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the 
                Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the 
                United States Virgin Islands.
                    ``(B) Indian lands.
                    ``(C) A county, municipality, city, town, township, 
                village, borough, or similar unit of general government 
                that is--
                            ``(i) incorporated pursuant to a State law; 
                        or
                            ``(ii) is an `incorporated place' (as such 
                        term is defined in the most recent glossary of 
                        the Census Bureau).
                    ``(D) A `census designated place' (as such term is 
                defined in the most recent glossary of the Census 
                Bureau).
                    ``(E) A congressional district.''.
            (2) Effective date.--The amendment made by paragraph (1) 
        shall take effect 3 months after the date of the enactment of 
        this Act.
    (b) Expansion of Certain Definitions.--
            (1) Expansion of the definition of electioneering 
        communication.--
                    (A) Application to qualified internet and digital 
                communications.--
                            (i) In general.--Subparagraph (A) of 
                        section 304(f)(3) of the Federal Election 
                        Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30104(f)(3)(A)) 
                        is amended by striking ``or satellite 
                        communication'' each place it appears in 
                        clauses (i) and (ii) and inserting ``satellite, 
                        or qualified internet or digital 
                        communication''.
                            (ii) Qualified internet or digital 
                        communication.--Paragraph (3) of section 304(f) 
                        of such Act (52 U.S.C. 30104(f)) is amended by 
                        adding at the end the following new 
                        subparagraph:
                    ``(D) Qualified internet or digital 
                communication.--The term `qualified internet or digital 
                communication' means any communication which is placed 
                or promoted for a fee on a covered online platform (as 
                defined in section 325(e)).''.
                    (B) Nonapplication of relevant electorate to online 
                communications.--Section 304(f)(3)(A)(i)(III) of such 
                Act (52 U.S.C. 30104(f)(3)(A)(i)(III)) is amended by 
                inserting ``any broadcast, cable, or satellite'' before 
                ``communication''.
                    (C) News exemption.--Section 304(f)(3)(B)(i) of 
                such Act (52 U.S.C. 30104(f)(3)(B)(i)) is amended to 
                read as follows:
                            ``(i) a communication appearing in a news 
                        story, commentary, or editorial distributed 
                        through the facilities of any broadcasting 
                        station or any online or digital newspaper, 
                        magazine, blog, publication, or periodical, 
                        unless such broadcasting, online, or digital 
                        facilities are owned or controlled by any 
                        political party, political committee, or 
                        candidate;''.
            (2) Expansion of the definition of public communication.--
        Paragraph (22) of section 301 of the Federal Election Campaign 
        Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30101(22)) is amended by striking ``or 
        satellite communication'' and inserting ``satellite, paid 
        internet, or paid digital communication, paid promotion''.
            (3) Effective date.--The amendments made by this subsection 
        shall apply with respect to communications made on or after the 
        expiration of the 3-month period which begins on the date of 
        the enactment of this Act.
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