Limiting Section 230 Immunity to Good Samaritans Act

I 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 277 To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to provide accountability for bad actors who abuse the Good Samaritan protections provided under that Act, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JANUARY 12, 2021 Mr. BUDD (for himself, Mr. WALTZ, and Mr. GOODEN of Texas) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce A BILL To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to provide ac- countability for bad actors who abuse the Good Samari- tan protections provided under that Act, 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 ‘‘Limiting Section 230 4 Immunity to Good Samaritans Act’’. 5 SEC. 2. SCOPE OF PROTECTION. 6 Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 7 U.S.C. 230) is amended— 8 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:49 Feb 05, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H277.IH H277 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 277 IH (1) in subsection (c)— 1 (A) in paragraph (1)— 2 (i) by striking ‘‘No provider’’ and in- 3 serting the following: 4 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Subject to subpara- 5 graph (B), no provider’’; and 6 (ii) by adding at the end the fol- 7 lowing: 8 ‘‘(B) CONDITION.—With respect to an 9 edge provider, subparagraph (A) shall only 10 apply if the provider adopts and maintains writ- 11 ten terms of service that— 12 ‘‘(i) take precedence over other such 13 terms in case of any conflict between the 14 sets of terms; 15 ‘‘(ii) describe any policies of the edge 16 provider relating to restricting access to or 17 availability of material; and 18 ‘‘(iii) promise that the edge provider 19 shall— 20 ‘‘(I) design and operate the pro- 21 vided service in good faith; and 22 ‘‘(II) if the provider is found, in 23 a civil action brought in Federal or 24 State court, or by an arbitrator, to 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:49 Feb 05, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H277.IH H277 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 277 IH breach the promise made under sub- 1 clause (I) with respect to a claimant 2 user, pay that user— 3 ‘‘(aa) the greater of— 4 ‘‘(AA) damages of not 5 less than $5,000; or 6 ‘‘(BB) actual damages; 7 and 8 ‘‘(bb) with respect to litiga- 9 tion or arbitration by the user to 10 enforce the promise— 11 ‘‘(AA) a reasonable at- 12 torney’s fee; and 13 ‘‘(BB) costs and other 14 expenses described in sec- 15 tions 1821 and 1920 of title 16 28, United States Code (or, 17 in the case of an action 18 brought in State court or 19 through arbitration, any 20 similar costs and other ex- 21 penses).’’; and 22 (B) by adding at the end the following: 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:49 Feb 05, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H277.IH H277 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 277 IH ‘‘(3) GOOD FAITH.—For the purposes of this 1 subsection, a provider of an interactive computer 2 service— 3 ‘‘(A) acts in good faith if the provider acts 4 with an honest belief and purpose, observes fair 5 dealing standards, and acts without fraudulent 6 intent; and 7 ‘‘(B) does not act in good faith if the pro- 8 vider takes an action that includes— 9 ‘‘(i) the intentionally selective enforce- 10 ment of the terms of service of the inter- 11 active computer service, including the in- 12 tentionally selective enforcement of policies 13 of the provider relating to restricting ac- 14 cess to or availability of material; 15 ‘‘(ii) enforcing the terms of service of 16 the interactive computer service, including 17 enforcing policies of the provider to restrict 18 access to or availability of material, 19 against a user by employing an algorithm 20 that selectively enforces those terms, if the 21 provider knows, or acts in reckless dis- 22 regard of the fact, that the algorithm se- 23 lectively enforces those terms; 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:49 Feb 05, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H277.IH H277 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 277 IH ‘‘(iii) the intentional failure to honor a 1 public or private promise made by, or on 2 behalf of, the provider; or 3 ‘‘(iv) any other intentional action 4 taken by the provider without an honest 5 belief and purpose, without observing fair 6 dealing standards, or with fraudulent in- 7 tent.’’; 8 (2) in subsection (e), by adding at the end the 9 following: 10 ‘‘(6) NO EFFECT ON LEGAL PROMISES.—Noth- 11 ing in this section shall be construed to impair or 12 limit any claim for breach of contract, promissory 13 estoppel, or breach of a duty of good faith.’’; and 14 (3) in subsection (f), by adding at the end the 15 following: 16 ‘‘(5) EDGE PROVIDER.—The term ‘edge pro- 17 vider’— 18 ‘‘(A) means an entity that— 19 ‘‘(i) provides an interactive computer 20 service— 21 ‘‘(I) through a website, online ap- 22 plication, or mobile application (in- 23 cluding a single interactive computer 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:49 Feb 05, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H277.IH H277 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 277 IH service that is provided through more 1 than 1 such website or application); 2 ‘‘(II) through which information 3 provided by another information con- 4 tent provider is distributed; and 5 ‘‘(III) that, in any month during 6 the most recently completed 12-month 7 period— 8 ‘‘(aa) more than 30,000,000 9 users in the United States 10 accessed, without regard to the 11 means by which the users 12 accessed the service; or 13 ‘‘(bb) more than 14 300,000,000 users worldwide 15 accessed, without regard to the 16 means by which the users 17 accessed the service; and 18 ‘‘(ii) during the most recently com- 19 pleted taxable year, had more than 20 $1,500,000,000 in global revenue; and 21 ‘‘(B) does not include an organization de- 22 scribed in section 501(c) of the Internal Rev- 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:49 Feb 05, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H277.IH H277 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 277 IH enue Code of 1986 that is exempt from taxation 1 under section 501(a) of such Code.’’. 2 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:49 Feb 05, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H277.IH H277 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS