[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 941 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
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118th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 941
To remove immunity protections from social media platforms which host
accounts of censoring foreign adversaries, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
March 22, 2023
Mr. Rubio (for himself and Mr. Braun) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce,
Science, and Transportation
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To remove immunity protections from social media platforms which host
accounts of censoring foreign adversaries, 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 ``Removing Section 230 Immunity for
Official Accounts of Censoring Foreign Adversaries Act''.
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Censoring foreign adversary.--The term ``censoring
foreign adversary'' means an adversarial foreign government
that--
(A) restricts access to covered social media
platforms; and
(B) is designated as a censoring foreign adversary
pursuant to section 3.
(2) Covered, verified, or other authentic account.--The
term ``covered, verified, or other authentic account'' means
any account on a covered social media platform that--
(A) is under the control or working on behalf of--
(i) a government agency, department,
ministry, or institution of a censoring foreign
adversary;
(ii) a government official of a censoring
foreign adversary, including heads of state,
elected officials, appointed ministers,
ambassadors, and official spokespersons; or
(iii) a company, or the employees of a
company, that--
(I) is directly or indirectly owned
by a censoring foreign adversary;
(II) is controlled by a censoring
foreign adversary that has the
authority to decide important matters
with respect to such company; or
(III) has, as a shareholder holding
at least 10 percent of the outstanding
voting stock or shares of the company,
a censoring foreign adversary; and
(B)(i) displays a badge, check mark, or other
public-facing identification tool that--
(I) is issued by the platform; and
(II) is used to indicate the authenticity,
validity, or verification of the person,
organization, government, or other entity,
represented by the account; or
(ii) has more than 500,000 followers.
(3) Covered social media platform.--The term ``covered
social media platform''--
(A) means an Internet website, application, or
platform that--
(i) is open to the public;
(ii) allows citizens from any country to
create an account on, register for, and enjoy
as a user, such website, application, or
platform;
(iii) enables users to communicate with
other users for the primary purpose of posting
information, comments, messages, or images;
(iv) has more than 50,000,000 active users
in the United States in a calendar month; and
(v) is headquartered, or has its principal
place of business, in the United States; and
(B) does not include--
(i) electronic mail; or
(ii) an online service, application, or
website--
(I) that consists primarily of
news, sports, entertainment, or other
information or content that is not user
generated, but is preselected by the
provider; and
(II) for which any chat, comments,
or interactive functionality is
incidental to, directly related to, or
dependent on the provision of the
content described in subparagraph (I).
(4) Follower.--The term ``follower'' means an account that
has taken any action to subscribe to another account's content,
updates, or posts.
(5) User.--The term ``user'' means a person or entity who
posts, uploads, transmits, shares, or otherwise publishes or
receives content through a social media platform.
SEC. 3. DESIGNATED CENSORING FOREIGN ADVERSARIES.
The Secretary of State shall compile a list of censoring foreign
adversaries, which shall include--
(1) the Government of the People's Republic of China;
(2) the Government of the Russian Federation;
(3) the Government of the Democratic People's Republic of
Korea;
(4) the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran;
(5) the Government of the Republic of Cuba;
(6) the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic; and
(7) the regime of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela.
SEC. 4. LIABILITY PROTECTION.
(a) In General.--Covered social media platforms that knowingly
host, distribute, or actively display a covered, verified, or other
authentic account of a censoring foreign adversary shall not receive
any protection under section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47
U.S.C. 230) for content shared, edited, or created by such account.
(b) Clarification.--For purposes of subsection (a), a covered
social media platform is deemed to have knowledge with respect to any
content shared, edited, or created by a covered, verified, or other
authentic account that meets the requirements described in section
2(2)(B)(i).
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