Removing Section 230 Immunity for Official Accounts of Censoring Foreign Adversaries Act

II 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 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 ‘‘Removing Section 230 4 Immunity for Official Accounts of Censoring Foreign Ad- 5 versaries Act’’. 6 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 7 In this Act: 8 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:07 Mar 31, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S941.IS S941 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •S 941 IS (1) CENSORING FOREIGN ADVERSARY.—The 1 term ‘‘censoring foreign adversary’’ means an adver- 2 sarial foreign government that— 3 (A) restricts access to covered social media 4 platforms; and 5 (B) is designated as a censoring foreign 6 adversary pursuant to section 3. 7 (2) COVERED, VERIFIED, OR OTHER AUTHEN- 8 TIC ACCOUNT.—The term ‘‘covered, verified, or 9 other authentic account’’ means any account on a 10 covered social media platform that— 11 (A) is under the control or working on be- 12 half of— 13 (i) a government agency, department, 14 ministry, or institution of a censoring for- 15 eign adversary; 16 (ii) a government official of a cen- 17 soring foreign adversary, including heads 18 of state, elected officials, appointed min- 19 isters, ambassadors, and official spokes- 20 persons; or 21 (iii) a company, or the employees of a 22 company, that— 23 (I) is directly or indirectly owned 24 by a censoring foreign adversary; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:07 Mar 31, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S941.IS S941 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •S 941 IS (II) is controlled by a censoring 1 foreign adversary that has the author- 2 ity to decide important matters with 3 respect to such company; or 4 (III) has, as a shareholder hold- 5 ing at least 10 percent of the out- 6 standing voting stock or shares of the 7 company, a censoring foreign adver- 8 sary; and 9 (B)(i) displays a badge, check mark, or 10 other public-facing identification tool that— 11 (I) is issued by the platform; and 12 (II) is used to indicate the authen- 13 ticity, validity, or verification of the per- 14 son, organization, government, or other en- 15 tity, represented by the account; or 16 (ii) has more than 500,000 followers. 17 (3) COVERED SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM.—The 18 term ‘‘covered social media platform’’— 19 (A) means an Internet website, application, 20 or platform that— 21 (i) is open to the public; 22 (ii) allows citizens from any country 23 to create an account on, register for, and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:07 Mar 31, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S941.IS S941 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •S 941 IS enjoy as a user, such website, application, 1 or platform; 2 (iii) enables users to communicate 3 with other users for the primary purpose 4 of posting information, comments, mes- 5 sages, or images; 6 (iv) has more than 50,000,000 active 7 users in the United States in a calendar 8 month; and 9 (v) is headquartered, or has its prin- 10 cipal place of business, in the United 11 States; and 12 (B) does not include— 13 (i) electronic mail; or 14 (ii) an online service, application, or 15 website— 16 (I) that consists primarily of 17 news, sports, entertainment, or other 18 information or content that is not 19 user generated, but is preselected by 20 the provider; and 21 (II) for which any chat, com- 22 ments, or interactive functionality is 23 incidental to, directly related to, or 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:07 Mar 31, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S941.IS S941 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •S 941 IS dependent on the provision of the con- 1 tent described in subparagraph (I). 2 (4) FOLLOWER.—The term ‘‘follower’’ means 3 an account that has taken any action to subscribe to 4 another account’s content, updates, or posts. 5 (5) USER.—The term ‘‘user’’ means a person 6 or entity who posts, uploads, transmits, shares, or 7 otherwise publishes or receives content through a so- 8 cial media platform. 9 SEC. 3. DESIGNATED CENSORING FOREIGN ADVERSARIES. 10 The Secretary of State shall compile a list of cen- 11 soring foreign adversaries, which shall include— 12 (1) the Government of the People’s Republic of 13 China; 14 (2) the Government of the Russian Federation; 15 (3) the Government of the Democratic People’s 16 Republic of Korea; 17 (4) the Government of the Islamic Republic of 18 Iran; 19 (5) the Government of the Republic of Cuba; 20 (6) the Government of the Syrian Arab Repub- 21 lic; and 22 (7) the regime of Nicola´s Maduro in Venezuela. 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:07 Mar 31, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S941.IS S941 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •S 941 IS SEC. 4. LIABILITY PROTECTION. 1 (a) IN GENERAL.—Covered social media platforms 2 that knowingly host, distribute, or actively display a cov- 3 ered, verified, or other authentic account of a censoring 4 foreign adversary shall not receive any protection under 5 section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 6 U.S.C. 230) for content shared, edited, or created by such 7 account. 8 (b) CLARIFICATION.—For purposes of subsection (a), 9 a covered social media platform is deemed to have knowl- 10 edge with respect to any content shared, edited, or created 11 by a covered, verified, or other authentic account that 12 meets the requirements described in section 2(2)(B)(i). 13 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:07 Mar 31, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S941.IS S941 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS