Protecting Americans from Dangerous Algorithms Act

I 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 2154 To amend section 230(c) of the Communications Act of 1934 to prevent immunity for interactive computer services for certain claims, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MARCH 23, 2021 Mr. MALINOWSKI (for himself, Ms. ESHOO, Ms. JACOBS of California, Mr. NEGUSE, Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, Mr. PHILLIPS, Ms. LEE of Cali- fornia, Mr. CASTEN, Ms. STEVENS, and Mr. WELCH) introduced the fol- lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Com- merce A BILL To amend section 230(c) of the Communications Act of 1934 to prevent immunity for interactive computer serv- ices for certain claims, 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 ‘‘Protecting Americans 4 from Dangerous Algorithms Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:26 May 20, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2154.IH H2154 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 2154 IH SEC. 2. AMENDMENT TO THE COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY 1 ACT. 2 Section 230(c) of the Communications Act of 1934 3 (47 U.S.C. 230(c)) is amended by adding at the end the 4 following new paragraph: 5 ‘‘(3) ALGORITHMIC AMPLIFICATION.— 6 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—For purposes of para- 7 graph (1), an interactive computer service shall 8 be considered to be an information content pro- 9 vider and the protection under such paragraph 10 shall not apply for any claim described in sub- 11 paragraph (B). 12 ‘‘(B) CONDITIONS FOR CLAIM.— 13 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—A claim in this 14 subparagraph requires the following: 15 ‘‘(I) A claim in a civil action is 16 brought under— 17 ‘‘(aa) section 1980 or 1981 18 of the Revised Statutes (42 19 U.S.C. 1985; 42 U.S.C. 1986); 20 or 21 ‘‘(bb) section 2333 of title 22 18, United States Code. 23 ‘‘(II) Except as provided in 24 clause (ii), the claim involves a case in 25 which the interactive computer service 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:26 May 20, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2154.IH H2154 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 2154 IH used an algorithm, model, or other 1 computational process to rank, order, 2 promote, recommend, amplify, or 3 similarly alter the delivery or display 4 of information (including any text, 5 image, audio, or video post, page, 6 group, account, channel, or affiliation) 7 provided to a user of the service if the 8 information is directly relevant to the 9 claim. 10 ‘‘(ii) EXCEPTION.—Notwithstanding 11 clause (i)(II), the requirement is not met 12 if— 13 ‘‘(I) the information delivery or 14 display is ranked, ordered, promoted, 15 recommended, amplified, or similarly 16 altered in a way that is obvious, un- 17 derstandable, and transparent to a 18 reasonable user based only on the de- 19 livery or display of the information 20 (without the need to reference the 21 terms of service or any other agree- 22 ment), including sorting informa- 23 tion— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:26 May 20, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2154.IH H2154 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 2154 IH ‘‘(aa) chronologically or re- 1 verse chronologically; 2 ‘‘(bb) by average user rating 3 or number of user reviews; 4 ‘‘(cc) alphabetically; 5 ‘‘(dd) randomly; and 6 ‘‘(ee) by views, downloads, 7 or a similar usage metric; or 8 ‘‘(II) the algorithm, model, or 9 other computational process is used 10 for information a user specifically 11 searches for. 12 ‘‘(C) EXEMPTIONS.— 13 ‘‘(i) SMALL BUSINESSES.—This para- 14 graph shall not apply to an interactive 15 computer service that (in combination with 16 each subsidiary and affiliate of the service) 17 has 10,000,000 or fewer unique monthly 18 visitors or users for not fewer than three 19 of the preceding 12 months. 20 ‘‘(ii) INTERNET INFRASTRUCTURE.— 21 This paragraph shall not apply to a pro- 22 vider of an interactive computer service, 23 when that service is used by another inter- 24 active computer service for the manage- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:26 May 20, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2154.IH H2154 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 2154 IH ment, control, or operation of that other 1 interactive computer service, including 2 for— 3 ‘‘(I) web hosting; 4 ‘‘(II) domain registration; 5 ‘‘(III) content delivery networks; 6 ‘‘(IV) caching; 7 ‘‘(V) data storage; and 8 ‘‘(VI) cybersecurity.’’. 9 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:26 May 20, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H2154.IH H2154 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS