[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1801 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

<DOC>






118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1801

 To ensure that large online platforms are addressing the needs of non-
                             English users.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              June 1, 2023

Mr. Lujan (for himself, Mr. Padilla, Mr. Menendez, Ms. Hirono, and Mr. 
Wyden) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 
       to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To ensure that large online platforms are addressing the needs of non-
                             English users.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.

    (a) Short Title.--This Act may be cited as the ``Language-Inclusive 
Support and Transparency for Online Services Act of 2023'' or the 
``LISTOS Act''.
    (b) Table of Contents.--The table of contents of this Act is as 
follows:

Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
Sec. 2. Sense of Congress.
Sec. 3. Duty to ensure consistent enforcement.
Sec. 4. Disclosures on staffing and automated processes.
Sec. 5. Consistent access to tools and documentation.
Sec. 6. Advisory Group.
Sec. 7. Enforcement.
Sec. 8. Regulations.
Sec. 9. Effective dates.
Sec. 10. International online communication research activities pilot 
                            program.
Sec. 11. Definitions.

SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    It is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) substantial and deliberate investments across languages 
        are essential to protect the safety of users online and ensure 
        equitable access to digital spaces;
            (2) online platforms have historically under-invested in 
        ensuring non-English content moderation and automated content 
        detection and filtering processes keep pace with their English 
        counterparts, providing little transparency into the efficacy 
        of efforts to detect, review, and remove content that violates 
        laws or platform policies across languages;
            (3) this difference in enforcement for platforms' existing 
        policies and uneven moderation practices across both manual and 
        automated processes has increased the proliferation of illegal 
        and harmful content across many languages and the deliberate 
        targeting of non-English-speaking communities for fraud and 
        harassment; and
            (4) any reform effort for online platform safety must 
        ensure equitable investment across languages in order to 
        promote economic opportunity, public health, and civil rights.

SEC. 3. DUTY TO ENSURE CONSISTENT ENFORCEMENT.

    (a) In General.--The operator of a covered platform shall provide 
that processes used by the platform for detecting, suppressing, and 
removing illegal content, or content that otherwise violates platform 
policies, are reasonably consistent for languages in which the covered 
platform engages in monetization practices.
    (b) Considerations.--Any entity enforcing or promulgating rules 
under subsection (a) shall take into consideration factors that may 
impact the covered platform's ability to enforce its policies with 
respect to content in a given language, including staffing levels and 
language proficiency, or the effectiveness of automated systems 
designed to filter or flag content for additional review.
    (c) Rule of Construction; Limitation on Regulation.--Nothing in 
this section shall be construed to require, and no regulation issued by 
the Commission to carry out this section may require, that a covered 
platform take any particular action on a specific piece of content or 
class of content.

SEC. 4. DISCLOSURES ON STAFFING AND AUTOMATED PROCESSES.

    (a) In General.--The operator of a covered platform shall, not less 
than annually, submit to the Commission and make available to the 
public, in a machine-readable format, a clear and easily comprehensible 
report on any manual and algorithmic content moderation that the 
covered platform engaged in during the relevant period. Each such 
report shall be in compliance with the rules established under 
subsection (b).
    (b) Rules.--The Commission shall, in accordance with section 8, 
establish rules for reports under subsection (a). Such rules shall 
require that a report include the following information:
            (1) Content moderation staffing.--
                    (A) In general.--The number of staff employed by 
                the covered platform (whether directly employed by the 
                platform or contracted through a third party) for the 
                purposes of manually reviewing content for removal or 
                other interventions, in aggregate and broken down by--
                            (i) the countries in which the employees 
                        are located;
                            (ii) the geographic or regional area to 
                        which the employees are assigned; and
                            (iii) languages spoken by the employees 
                        relevant to their employment and their levels 
                        of language proficiency.
                    (B) Staff support.--A description of the training 
                and support provided to content moderation staff, 
                including--
                            (i) the training processes and guidelines 
                        provided;
                            (ii) the support services, such as mental 
                        health services, available to the employee; and
                            (iii) if training or support services 
                        differ by factors such as geographic region, 
                        languages spoken, or direct-hire versus 
                        contracted employees, descriptions and 
                        breakdowns of such differences.
            (2) Automated content detection and decision-making 
        processes.--If the covered platform elects to use algorithmic 
        processes to detect content for additional manual review or 
        automated decision-making for content moderation, information 
        on such processes, including--
                    (A) performance metrics that are monitored to 
                ensure consistent behavior for such processes across 
                languages and the languages that are monitored; and
                    (B) other safeguards in place to ensure consistent 
                behavior of such systems across languages.
            (3) Monetization across languages.--The list of languages 
        in which the covered platform engages in monetization practices 
        and the percentage breakdown by language of the covered 
        platform's revenue throughout the duration of the relevant 
        reporting period.
            (4) In-language review.--Of all content that is manually 
        reviewed by staff, provide information on content that is 
        reviewed in the original language used to create the content 
        rather than being subject to automated translation before 
        review, including--
                    (A) the percentage of content reviewed in the 
                original language for each language in which the 
                covered platform engages in monetization practices; and
                    (B) a description of the policies governing whether 
                and to what extent content will be manually reviewed in 
                the original language or automatically translated prior 
                to manual review.
            (5) Translation and review processes.--With respect to the 
        content review practices of the covered platform--
                    (A) the list of languages in which content is 
                reviewed without translation; and
                    (B) for languages in which automated translation is 
                applied prior to manual review, a description of--
                            (i) the process by which content is 
                        translated; and
                            (ii) the process by which that content is 
                        reviewed and how, if at all, that process 
                        differs from the process used to review content 
                        in the original language.
            (6) Content moderation outcome measures.--
                    (A) Number of content takedowns.--The number of 
                content takedowns over the relevant reporting period 
                for each language in which the covered platform engages 
                in monetization practices.
                    (B) Response time.--The average response time to 
                user-initiated takedown or content review requests over 
                the relevant reporting period for each language in 
                which the covered platform engages in monetization 
                practices.
            (7) Additional information.--Other information determined 
        appropriate by the Commission, including additional categories 
        or criteria relevant to the information described in paragraphs 
        (1), (2), and (4).

SEC. 5. CONSISTENT ACCESS TO TOOLS AND DOCUMENTATION.

    The operator of a covered platform shall--
            (1) provide that all user tools for reporting content for 
        review or automated action are accessible across all languages 
        in which the covered platform offers its service; and
            (2) post all platform policies and other information 
        concerning acceptable use of the covered platform in the same 
        manner for all languages in which the platform offers its 
        service.

SEC. 6. ADVISORY GROUP.

    (a) Establishment.--Not later than 360 days after the date of 
enactment of this Act, the Commission shall establish a group to be 
known as the ``Advisory Group on Language-Sensitive Technologies'' 
(referred to in this section as the ``Advisory Group'').
    (b) Duties.--
            (1) In general.--The Advisory Group shall provide consensus 
        advice and guidance to the Commission on best practices for 
        private enterprises or public entities using covered technology 
        that may have different performance outcomes depending on the 
        underlying language of the content being analyzed in order to 
        ensure the nondiscriminatory application of such technology.
            (2) Covered technology.--For purposes of paragraph (1), the 
        term ``covered technology'' means technology used to--
                    (A) detect and process input language from sources, 
                such as analog text and audio, into a machine-readable 
                format, such as speech and optical character 
                recognition;
                    (B) process or generate language stored in a 
                machine-readable format, such as natural language 
                processing, including large language models;
                    (C) detect and process images and videos into a 
                machine-readable format, or process images or videos 
                stored in a machine-readable format; and
                    (D) make automated decisions related to content 
                removal, ranking, or presentation to a user of an 
                online platform.
            (3) Membership.--The Commission shall appoint the members 
        of the Advisory Group. In making such appointments, the 
        Commission shall provide that the membership of the Advisory 
        Group--
                    (A) includes different points of view and 
                background experience; and
                    (B) includes both Federal employees and non-Federal 
                employee stakeholders, including representatives of 
                communities most impacted by the systemic risks of 
                harmful non-English language content and current or 
                former content moderators and employees of covered 
                platforms.
            (4) Report.--The Commission shall make available on its 
        website the findings of the Advisory Group with recommendations 
        and best practices as reported by the Advisory Group concerning 
        the use of covered technology.
    (c) Non-Applicability of the Federal Advisory Committee Act.--
Chapter 10 of title 5, United States Code, shall not apply to the 
Advisory Group.
    (d) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized to be 
appropriated to the Advisory Group such sums as are necessary to carry 
out the requirements of this section.

SEC. 7. ENFORCEMENT.

    (a) Enforcement by the Federal Trade Commission.--
            (1) Unfair or deceptive acts or practices.--A violation of 
        section 3, 4, or 5 shall be treated as a violation of a rule 
        defining an unfair or a deceptive act or practice under section 
        18(a)(1)(B) of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 
        57a(a)(1)(B)).
            (2) Powers of commission.--
                    (A) In general.--The Commission shall enforce this 
                Act in the same manner, by the same means, and with the 
                same jurisdiction, powers, and duties as though all 
                applicable terms and provisions of the Federal Trade 
                Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.) were incorporated 
                into and made a part of this Act.
                    (B) Privileges and immunities.--Any person who 
                violates section 3, 4, or 5 shall be subject to the 
                penalties and entitled to the privileges and immunities 
                provided in the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 
                41 et seq.).
                    (C) Authority preserved.--Nothing in this Act shall 
                be construed to limit the authority of the Federal 
                Trade Commission under any other provision of law.
    (b) Enforcement by States.--
            (1) In general.--In any case in which the attorney general 
        of a State has reason to believe that an interest of the 
        residents of the State has been or is threatened or adversely 
        affected by the engagement of any person subject to section 3 
        or 5 in a practice that violates such section, the attorney 
        general of the State may, as parens patriae, bring a civil 
        action on behalf of the residents of the State in an 
        appropriate district court of the United States--
                    (A) to enjoin further violation of such section by 
                such person;
                    (B) to compel compliance with such section; and
                    (C) to obtain damages, restitution, or other 
                compensation on behalf of such residents.
            (2) Scope of jurisdiction.--The attorney general of a State 
        may not bring a civil action under this subsection against a 
        person for a violation of section 3 or 5 if the Commission 
        would not be able to bring an enforcement action against the 
        person for such violation under subsection (a) because the 
        person is exempt from coverage under the Federal Trade 
        Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.).
            (3) Rights of federal trade commission.--
                    (A) Notice to federal trade commission.--
                            (i) In general.--Except as provided in 
                        clause (iii), the attorney general of a State 
                        shall notify the Commission in writing that the 
                        attorney general intends to bring a civil 
                        action under paragraph (1) before initiating 
                        the civil action.
                            (ii) Contents.--The notification required 
                        by clause (i) with respect to a civil action 
                        shall include a copy of the complaint to be 
                        filed to initiate the civil action.
                            (iii) Exception.--If it is not feasible for 
                        the attorney general of a State to provide the 
                        notification required by clause (i) before 
                        initiating a civil action under paragraph (1), 
                        the attorney general shall notify the 
                        Commission immediately upon instituting the 
                        civil action.
                    (B) Intervention by federal trade commission.--The 
                Commission may--
                            (i) intervene in any civil action brought 
                        by the attorney general of a State under 
                        paragraph (1); and
                            (ii) upon intervening--
                                    (I) be heard on all matters arising 
                                in the civil action; and
                                    (II) file petitions for appeal.
            (4) Investigatory powers.--Nothing in this subsection may 
        be construed to prevent the attorney general of a State from 
        exercising the powers conferred on the attorney general by the 
        laws of the State to conduct investigations, to administer 
        oaths or affirmations, or to compel the attendance of witnesses 
        or the production of documentary or other evidence.
            (5) Preemptive action by federal trade commission.--If the 
        Commission institutes a civil action or an administrative 
        action with respect to a violation of section 3 or 5, the 
        attorney general of a State may not, during the pendency of 
        such action, bring a civil action under paragraph (1) against 
        any defendant named in the complaint of the Commission for the 
        violation with respect to which the Commission instituted such 
        action.
            (6) Venue; service of process.--
                    (A) Venue.--Any action brought under paragraph (1) 
                may be brought in--
                            (i) the district court of the United States 
                        that meets applicable requirements relating to 
                        venue under section 1391 of title 28, United 
                        States Code; or
                            (ii) another court of competent 
                        jurisdiction.
                    (B) Service of process.--In an action brought under 
                paragraph (1), process may be served in any district in 
                which the defendant--
                            (i) is an inhabitant; or
                            (ii) may be found.
            (7) Actions by other state officials.--
                    (A) In general.--In addition to civil actions 
                brought by attorneys general under paragraph (1), any 
                other consumer protection officer of a State who is 
                authorized by the State to do so may bring a civil 
                action under paragraph (1), subject to the same 
                requirements and limitations that apply under this 
                subsection to civil actions brought by attorneys 
                general.
                    (B) Savings provision.--Nothing in this subsection 
                may be construed to prohibit an authorized official of 
                a State from initiating or continuing any proceeding in 
                a court of the State for a violation of any civil or 
                criminal law of the State.

SEC. 8. REGULATIONS.

    (a) In General.--The Commission shall, pursuant to section 553 of 
title 5, United States Code promulgate--
            (1) regulations to carry out the provisions of sections 3 
        and 4; and
            (2) such other regulations as the Commission determines 
        necessary to carry out the provisions of this Act.
    (b) Timing.--The Commission shall begin the rulemaking process for 
promulgating regulations to carry out the provisions of sections 3 and 
4 not later than 120 days after the date of enactment of this Act.

SEC. 9. EFFECTIVE DATES.

    The requirements of sections 3 and 4 shall take effect 120 days 
after the promulgation by the Commission of regulations to carry out 
such sections, and the requirements of section 5 shall take effect 120 
days after the date of enactment of this Act.

SEC. 10. INTERNATIONAL ONLINE COMMUNICATION RESEARCH ACTIVITIES PILOT 
              PROGRAM.

    (a) In General.--The Administrator of the United States Agency for 
International Development (referred to in this section as ``USAID'') 
shall, in coordination with the Secretary of State, evaluate and 
prioritize support to select countries, from among the countries 
eligible for assistance from USAID, for research and programming, such 
as tool development, civil society capacity building, and other 
activities, aimed at addressing the prevalence and impacts of non-
English online communication that--
            (1) promotes hate, harassment, or abuse of racial, ethnic, 
        gender, religious, or sexual minorities;
            (2) incites violence; or
            (3) is false, misleading, or intended to harm--
                    (A) targeted individuals;
                    (B) public health;
                    (C) democratic integrity;
                    (D) civil rights;
                    (E) humanitarian response;
                    (F) economic integrity; or
                    (G) public safety.
    (b) Authorized Activities.--
            (1) In general.--In carrying out subsection (a), the 
        Administrator may--
                    (A) build lexicons of terms and phrases commonly 
                used in communications described in subsection (a);
                    (B) identify and improve the understanding of how 
                real or falsified text, videos, or imagery are being 
                used to spread hate, abuse, scams, fraud, and false or 
                misleading information in non-English languages;
                    (C) strengthen the capacities of civil society, 
                local private sector, academia, and governments to 
                develop and implement activities focused on preventing, 
                mitigating, or responding to non-English online 
                communication that is hateful, abusive, fraudulent, 
                false, or misleading; and
                    (D) improve awareness and the abilities of the 
                civil society and governments of countries that receive 
                support under subsection (a) to discover and interpret 
                non-English online communication that is hateful, 
                abusive, fraudulent, false, or misleading that--
                            (i) is perpetuated or sponsored by malign 
                        actors or extremist organizations;
                            (ii) is influenced, regulated, or moderated 
                        by governments, social media companies, and 
                        internet service providers;
                            (iii) is perceived by, or impacts the 
                        target or other consumers of online 
                        communications or specific communities; and
                            (iv) leads to economic, mental, physical, 
                        or other harms at the individual, household, 
                        organization, or community levels.
            (2) Locally led requirement.--Recipients of not less than 
        50 percent of the amounts appropriated pursuant to subsection 
        (d) shall substantially engage with organizations led by 
        individuals who--
                    (A) are living in a place from which communication 
                described in subsection (a) originates or to which such 
                communication is targeted;
                    (B) are familiar with the cultural context in such 
                a place; and
                    (C) have experience researching or working to 
                address such digital or online communication.
            (3) Intersectionality requirement.--Research funded by 
        amounts appropriated pursuant to subsection (d) shall focus on 
        better understanding how online communication that is hateful 
        or abusive, incites violence, violates relevant data privacy 
        laws, divulges personal information, or involves false or 
        misleading information has a disparate impact on people who are 
        members of racial, ethnic, gender, religious, or sexual 
        minorities in their communities, including women, indigenous 
        populations, and people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, 
        transgender, queer, intersex, or as another sexual minority.
    (c) Reporting Requirement.--
            (1) In general.--Not later than 120 days after all of the 
        programs receiving funding appropriated pursuant to subsection 
        (d) are terminated, the Administrator of the United States 
        Agency for International Development shall provide a briefing, 
        and submit a report, to the Committee on Foreign Relations of 
        the Senate, the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 
        Transportation of the Senate, the Committee on Foreign Affairs 
        of the House of Representatives, and the Committee on Energy 
        and Commerce of the House of Representatives describing the 
        findings of the research conducted by such programs and the 
        outcomes of the activities carried out by such programs.
            (2) Public availability.--The report required under 
        paragraph (1) shall be made publicly available on a text-based 
        and searchable internet website.
    (d) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized to be 
appropriated $3,000,000 in each of the fiscal years 2024 and 2025 to 
carry out this section.

SEC. 11. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) Commission.--The term ``Commission'' means the Federal 
        Trade Commission.
            (2) Covered platform.--The term ``covered platform'' means 
        a website, internet application, or mobile internet application 
        that--
                    (A) allows users to create, share, view, or search 
                for and access user-generated or third-party content, 
                including a social media platform, online search 
                engine, and a service with direct or group messaging 
                capabilities; and
                    (B) has had at least 10,000,000 monthly active 
                users for 3 or more of the past 12 months within the 
                United States.
            (3) Monetization practices.--The term ``monetization 
        practices'' means any avenues through which a covered platform 
        might garner revenue, including accepting monetary, in-kind, or 
        other compensation--
                    (A) in exchange for displaying or amplifying 
                specific content; or
                    (B) from businesses or other entities to utilize 
                the covered platform as a means to find, charge, or 
                communicate with customers.
            (4) Platform policies.--The term ``platform policies'' 
        means any terms, conditions, and clauses, regardless of their 
        name or form, which govern the contractual relationship between 
        a covered platform and a user, or any community guidelines that 
        a covered platform maintains that govern conduct on the covered 
        platform.
                                 <all>