[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6463 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 6463

 To require the publication of the terms of service of certain social 
                        media company platforms.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           November 21, 2023

  Mr. Gottheimer (for himself and Mr. Bacon) introduced the following 
 bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and 
 in addition to the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, for a 
 period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for 
consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the 
                          committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To require the publication of the terms of service of certain social 
                        media company platforms.

    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 ``Stopping Terrorists Online Presence 
and Holding Accountable Tech Entities Act of 2023'' or as the ``STOP 
HATE Act of 2023''.

SEC. 2. TERMS OF SERVICE PUBLICATION.

    (a) No later than 180 days after the date of enactment, a social 
media company shall post terms of service, or lack thereof, for each 
social media platform owned or operated by the company in a manner 
reasonably designed to inform all users of the social media platform of 
the existence and contents of the terms of service applicable to the 
following:
            (1) A foreign terrorist organization designated under 
        section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
            (2) Individuals or entities designated as Specially 
        Designated Global Terrorists under Executive Order 13224.
    (b) In addition to the terms of service published pursuant to (a), 
the social media company shall also publish the following information:
            (1) Contact information for the purpose of allowing users 
        to ask the social media company questions about the terms of 
        service.
            (2) A description of the process that users must follow to 
        flag content, groups, or other users that they believe violate 
        the terms of service, and the social media company's 
        commitments on response and resolution time.
            (3) A list of potential actions the social media company 
        may take against an item of content or a user, including, but 
        not limited to, removal, demonetization, deprioritization, or 
        banning.

SEC. 3. TERMS OF SERVICE REPORT TO THE ATTORNEY GENERAL.

    (a) In General.--A social media company shall electronically submit 
on a triannual basis a terms of service report to the Attorney General 
pursuant to (b), regarding information and enforcement of the terms of 
service identified in section 2(a), that will include--
            (1) the version of the terms of service for each social 
        media platform owned or operated by the company in effect as of 
        the date of the report;
            (2) data related to violations of the terms of service of 
        identified under section 2 of this Act, including but not 
        limited to:
                    (A) The total number of flagged items of content.
                    (B) The total number of actioned items of content.
                    (C) The total number of actioned items of content 
                that resulted in action taken by the social media 
                company against the user or group of users responsible 
                for the content.
                    (D) The total number of actioned items of content 
                that were removed, demonetized, or deprioritized by the 
                social media company.
                    (E) The number of times actioned items of content 
                were viewed by users.
                    (F) The number of times actioned items of content 
                were shared, and the number of users that viewed the 
                content before it was actioned.
                    (G) The number of times users appealed social media 
                company actions taken on that platform and the number 
                of reversals of social media company actions on appeal 
                disaggregated by each type of action.
            (3) All information required by (2) shall be disaggregated 
        into the following categories:
                    (A) The category of content, including any relevant 
                categories described in (2).
                    (B) The type of content, including, but not limited 
                to, posts, comments, messages, profiles of users, or 
                groups of users.
                    (C) The type of media of the content, including, 
                but not limited to, text, images, and videos.
                    (D) How the content was flagged, including, but not 
                limited to, flagged by company employees or 
                contractors, flagged by artificial intelligence 
                software, flagged by community moderators, flagged by 
                civil society partners, and flagged by users.
                    (E) How the content was actioned, including, but 
                not limited to, actioned by company employees or 
                contractors, actioned by artificial intelligence 
                software, actioned by community moderators, actioned by 
                civil society partners, and actioned by users.
            (4) A complete and detailed evaluation of the changes over 
        time, including identifiable trends and analysis, with respect 
        to the information in clauses (1)-(3) since the previous 
        report, if applicable, and those thereafter.
    (b) Deadline.--Not later than 360 days after the date of enactment 
of this Act, a social media company shall submit the first report 
required pursuant to subsection (a). After the submission of the first 
report, the following reports will occur no later than January 31, 
April 30, and October 31 the following years.
    (c) Publication.--The Attorney General shall make all reports 
submitted under this section available to the public in a searchable 
repository on the Department of Justice's website.

SEC. 4. CIVIL PENALTY.

    (a) In General.--The Attorney General may bring an action for a 
civil penalty of not more than $5,000,000 per violation per day against 
any social media company that does not submit a report required under 
section 3.
    (b) Violations.--A social media company shall be considered in 
violation of the provisions of this chapter for each day the social 
media company does any of the following:
            (1) Fails to post terms of service in accordance with 
        section 2.
            (2) Fails to timely submit to the Attorney General a report 
        required pursuant to section 3.
            (3) Materially omits or misrepresents required information 
        in a report submitted pursuant to section 3.

SEC. 5. REPORTS.

    (a) National Intelligence Estimate.--Not later than 360 days after 
the date of enactment, the Director of National Intelligence shall 
submit a National Intelligence Estimate on the use of platforms by the 
individuals and entities identified under section 2(a) to Congress. The 
Director shall ensure an unclassified version of the assessment is 
published on the Department's website no later than 30 days following 
the submission to Congress.
    (b) Comptroller General Reports.--Not later than 540 days after the 
date of enactment, and then again 540 days after, the Comptroller 
General shall submit to Congress reports on the implementation of this 
Act.

SEC. 6. SUNSET.

    The authority to carry out this Act shall terminate on the date 
that is five years after the date of enactment of this Act.

SEC. 7. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
     (a) Actioned.--The term ``actioned'' means a social media company, 
due to a suspected or confirmed violation of the terms of service, has 
taken some form of action, including, but not limited to, removal, 
demonetization, deprioritization, or banning, against the relevant user 
or relevant item of content.
    (b) Content.--The term ``content'' means statements or comments 
made by users and media that are created, posted, shared, or otherwise 
interacted with by users on an internet-based service or application. 
This does not include media put on a service or application exclusively 
for the purpose of cloud storage, transmitting files, or file 
collaboration.
    (c) Social Media Platform.--The term ``social media platform'' 
means any entity subject to the jurisdiction of the Federal Trade 
Commission under section 5(a)(2) of the Federal Trade Commission Act 
(15 U.S.C. 45(a)(2)) that--
            (1) is a website, desktop application, or mobile 
        application that--
                    (A) permits a person to become a registered user, 
                establish an account, or create a profile for the 
                purpose of allowing the user to create, share, and view 
                user-generated content through such an account or 
                profile;
                    (B) enables one or more users to generate content 
                that can be viewed by other users of the platform; and
                    (C) primarily serves as a medium for users to 
                interact with content generated by other users of the 
                platform and for the platform to deliver ads to users; 
                and
            (2) has at least 25,000,000 unique monthly users in the 
        United States for a majority of the months in the most recent 
        12-month period.
    (d) Social Media Company.--The term ``social media company'' means 
a person or entity that owns or operates one or more social media 
platforms.
    (e) Publicly Traded Company.--The term ``publicly traded company'' 
means any company whose principal class of shares is listed on a stock 
exchange; and can be readily purchased or sold by the public; and 
includes all subsidiaries of a company.
    (f) Critical Trading Partner.--The term ``critical trading 
partner'' means an entity that has the ability to restrict or impede 
the access of a business user to--``the users or customers of the 
business user; or a tool or service that the business user needs to 
effectively serve the users or customers of the business user.''
    (g) Terms of Service.--The term ``terms of service'' means a policy 
or set of policies adopted by a social media company that specifies, at 
least, the user behavior and activities that are permitted on the 
internet-based service owned or operated by the social media company, 
and the user behavior and activities that may subject the user or an 
item of content to being actioned.
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