Protecting Americans from Dangerous Algorithms Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 8636 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 OCTOBER 20, 2020 Mr. MALINOWSKI (for himself and Ms. ESHOO) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 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 SEC. 2. AMENDMENT. 6 Section 230(c) of the Communications Act of 1934 7 (47 U.S.C. 230(c)) is amended by adding at the end the 8 following new paragraph: 9 VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:42 Nov 05, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8636.IH H8636 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 8636 IH ‘‘(3) ALGORITHMIC AMPLIFICATION.— 1 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—For purposes of para- 2 graph (1), an interactive computer service shall 3 be considered to be an information content pro- 4 vider and the protection under such paragraph 5 shall not apply for any claim described in sub- 6 paragraph (B). 7 ‘‘(B) CONDITIONS FOR CLAIM.— 8 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—A claim in this 9 subparagraph requires the following: 10 ‘‘(I) A claim in a civil action is 11 brought under— 12 ‘‘(aa) section 1980 or 1981 13 of the Revised Statutes (42 14 U.S.C. 1985; 42 U.S.C. 1986); 15 or 16 ‘‘(bb) section 2333 of title 17 18, United States Code. 18 ‘‘(II) Except as provided in 19 clause (ii), the claim involves a case in 20 which the interactive computer service 21 used an algorithm, model, or other 22 computational process to rank, order, 23 promote, recommend, amplify, or 24 similarly alter the delivery or display 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:42 Nov 05, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8636.IH H8636 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 8636 IH of information (including any text, 1 image, audio, or video post, page, 2 group, account, or affiliation) pro- 3 vided to a user of the service if the in- 4 formation is directly relevant to the 5 claim. 6 ‘‘(ii) EXCEPTION.—Notwithstanding 7 clause (i)(II), the requirement is not met 8 if— 9 ‘‘(I) the information delivery or 10 display is ranked, ordered, promoted, 11 recommended, amplified, or similarly 12 altered in a way that is obvious, un- 13 derstandable, and transparent to a 14 reasonable user based only on the de- 15 livery or display of the information 16 (without the need to reference the 17 terms of service or any other agree- 18 ment), including sorting informa- 19 tion— 20 ‘‘(aa) chronologically or re- 21 verse chronologically; 22 ‘‘(bb) by average user rating 23 or number of user reviews; 24 ‘‘(cc) alphabetically; and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:42 Nov 05, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8636.IH H8636 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 8636 IH ‘‘(dd) randomly; or 1 ‘‘(II) the algorithm, model, or 2 other computational process is used 3 for information a user specifically 4 searches for. 5 ‘‘(C) SMALL BUSINESS EXCEPTION.—This 6 paragraph shall not apply to an interactive 7 computer service that (in combination with each 8 subsidiary and affiliate of the service) has 9 50,000,000 or fewer unique monthly visitors or 10 users for a majority of the preceding 12 11 months.’’. 12 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:42 Nov 05, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H8636.IH H8636 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS