Break Up Big Tech Act of 2020

I 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 8922 To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to limit interactive computer service immunity. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES DECEMBER 9, 2020 Ms. GABBARD (for herself and Mr. GOSAR) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce A BILL To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to limit interactive computer service immunity. 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 ‘‘Break Up Big Tech 4 Act of 2020’’. 5 SEC. 2. LIMITATION ON INTERACTIVE COMPUTER SERVICE 6 IMMUNITY. 7 Section 230(c) of the Communications Act of 1934 8 (47 U.S.C. 230(c)) is amended by adding at the end the 9 following: 10 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:19 Dec 21, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8922.IH H8922 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 8922 IH ‘‘(3) LIMITATION.—After the date of the enact- 1 ment of this paragraph, paragraphs (1) and (2) 2 shall not apply to a provider of an interactive com- 3 puter service with respect to a service if the provider 4 after such date— 5 ‘‘(A)(i) sells advertising in which an adver- 6 tisement is displayed to a user of such service 7 based on— 8 ‘‘(I) personal traits of the user; 9 ‘‘(II) previous location information 10 with respect to the user; 11 ‘‘(III) personal information from a 12 profile about the user that is created for 13 the purpose of selling advertisements; 14 ‘‘(IV) the previous online or offline be- 15 havior of the user; 16 ‘‘(V) the content of the website, online 17 service, online application, or mobile appli- 18 cation to which the user is connected; 19 ‘‘(VI) the location of the user, as of 20 the time at which the advertising is di- 21 rected to the user; or 22 ‘‘(VII) the search terms that the user 23 applied to arrive at the website, service, or 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:19 Dec 21, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8922.IH H8922 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 8922 IH application to which the user is connected; 1 and 2 ‘‘(ii) displays an advertisement in a man- 3 ner described under clause (i) to a user who did 4 not opt-in to having an advertisement displayed 5 to such user in such a manner; 6 ‘‘(B) through such service, places items, or 7 facilitates the placement of items, into the 8 stream of commerce; 9 ‘‘(C) through such service, collects data for 10 commercial purposes other than receiving from 11 users of such service direct payment for the use 12 of such service; or 13 ‘‘(D) uses a design or product that addicts, 14 or whose purpose is to addict, users to such 15 service. 16 ‘‘(4) EXCEPTION.— 17 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding para- 18 graph (1), an owner or operator of a social 19 media service that displays user-generated con- 20 tent in an order other than chronological order, 21 delays the display of such content relative to 22 other content, or otherwise hinders the display 23 of such content relative to other content, if for 24 a reason other than to restrict access to or 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:20 Dec 24, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8922.IH H8922 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 8922 IH availability of material described in paragraph 1 (2)(A) or to carry out the direction of the user 2 that generated or requested such content or 3 generated or requested restricted access to such 4 content, shall be treated as a publisher or 5 speaker of such content. 6 ‘‘(B) DEFINITIONS.—In this paragraph— 7 ‘‘(i) SOCIAL MEDIA SERVICE.—The 8 term ‘social media service’ means any 9 interactive computer service provided over 10 the Internet that connects users for the 11 purpose of such users engaging in dia- 12 logue, sharing information, collaborating, 13 or otherwise interacting. 14 ‘‘(ii) USER-GENERATED CONTENT.— 15 The term ‘user-generated content’ means 16 content that is supplied on a social media 17 service by an information content provider 18 who is a user of such service.’’. 19 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:20 Dec 24, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H8922.IH H8922 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS