I 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 5209 

To direct the Under Secretary for Science and Technology of the Department 

of Homeland Security to design and administer a voluntary online terrorist content moderation exercise program, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

NOVEMBER 21, 2019 

Mr. ROSE of New York (for himself, Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi, Ms. 

CLARKE of New York, Miss RICE of New York, Ms. UNDERWOOD, Mr. 

PAYNE, and Ms. SLOTKIN) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Homeland Security 

A BILL 

To direct the Under Secretary for Science and Technology 

of the Department of Homeland Security to design and 

administer a voluntary online terrorist content moderation exercise program, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Raising the Bar Act 

5 of 2019’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. HOMELAND SECURITY VOLUNTARY ONLINE TER2 RORIST CONTENT MODERATION EXERCISE 

3 PROGRAM. 

4 (a) ESTABLISHMENT OF EXERCISE PROGRAM.—The 

5 Under Secretary for Science and Technology of the De6 partment of Homeland Security, in consultation with the 

7 Under Secretary for Strategy, Policy, and Plans, the Offi8 cer for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, and the Privacy 

9 Officer of the Department of Homeland Security, shall de10 sign and administer a voluntary online terrorist content 

11 moderation exercise program. Under such program, the 

12 Under Secretary for Science and Technology shall— 

13 (1) enter into an agreement with the lead insti14 tution designated under subsection (b), under which 

15 the lead institution shall carry out not fewer than 

16 three four-week voluntary online terrorist content 

17 moderation exercises during each calendar year; and 

18 (2) establish objective criteria for how the lead 

19 institution should use information submitted by 

20 trusted flaggers and participating technology compa21 nies during an exercise conducted under the pro22 gram to rate each participating technology company 

23 on— 

24 (A) the adherence of the participating 

25 technology company to the written online terVerDate Sep 11 2014 04:02 Dec 03, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5209.IH H5209

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1 rorist content moderation policies and proce2 dures of that company; 

3 (B) the compliance of the participating 

4 technology company with the requirement to 

5 conduct assessments and provide notice of such 

6 assessments under subsection (d)(2); and 

7 (C) such other factors relating to a partici8 pating technology company’s performance in 

9 the exercise as the Under Secretary for Science 

10 and Technology determines appropriate. 

11 (b) LEAD INSTITUTION.— 

12 (1) IN GENERAL.—For purposes of the program 

13 established under subsection (a), the Under Sec14 retary for Science and Technology, in consultation 

15 with the Under Secretary for Strategy, Policy, and 

16 Plans, shall seek to enter into an agreement with a 

17 qualified institution that agrees to be designated as 

18 the lead institution for purposes of the program. 

19 (2) QUALIFIED INSTITUTION.—For purposes of 

20 this section, an institution is qualified for designa21 tion as the lead institution pursuant to paragraph 

22 (1) if such institution is an institution of higher edu23 cation or nonprofit institution that possesses dem24 onstrated expertise in at least two of the following 

25 areas: 


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1 (A) Domestic terrorism. 

2 (B) International terrorism. 

3 (C) Cybersecurity. 

4 (D) Computer or information technology. 

5 (E) Privacy, civil rights, civil liberties, or 

6 human rights. 

7 (3) RESPONSIBILITIES.—Pursuant to an agree8 ment under this subsection, the lead institution shall 

9 agree to carry out the following responsibilities: 

10 (A) To identify and conduct outreach to 

11 technology companies and potential trusted 

12 flaggers to encourage the participation of such 

13 companies and potential trusted flaggers in the 

14 exercise program under this section. 

15 (B) To establish criteria, in consultation 

16 with participating technology companies, for 

17 qualified trusted flaggers. 

18 (C) To schedule and carry out three four19 week exercises during each calendar year to 

20 evaluate the adherence of each participating 

21 technology company to the written online ter22 rorist content moderation policies and proce23 dures of the company during the period for 

24 which the exercise is conducted, which shall in25 clude notifying participating technology compaVerDate Sep 11 2014 04:02 Dec 03, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5209.IH H5209

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1 nies and trusted flaggers of the commencement 

2 of the exercise 24 hours before the commence3 ment of the exercise and may include providing 

4 nominal payments to trusted flaggers for par5 ticipating in such exercise. 

6 (D) To develop a letter rating system 

7 based on the objective criteria established pur8 suant to subsection (a)(2), in collaboration with 

9 participating technology companies, to be used 

10 to assign a letter rating to each participating 

11 technology company upon the conclusion of an 

12 exercise. 

13 (E) To establish a process under which a 

14 trusted flagger can anonymously notify a par15 ticipating technology company of content that 

16 the trusted flagger identifies during an exercise 

17 because the trusted flagger believes such con18 tent is online terrorist content that violates a 

19 written online terrorist content moderation pol20 icy or procedure of the company. 

21 (F) To design a template for trusted 

22 flaggers to use to submit to the lead institution 

23 each notification communicated pursuant to the 

24 process under subparagraph (E) together with 

25 the following information: 


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1 (i) The name of the trusted flagger 

2 communicating the notification and the 

3 name of the participating technology com4 pany receiving such notification. 

5 (ii) The grounds for the notification, 

6 including a specific identification of the 

7 written online terrorist content moderation 

8 policy or procedure of the participating 

9 technology company that was violated by 

10 the identified content and the terrorist ide11 ology or ideologies associated with such 

12 content. 

13 (iii) The location, including the uni14 form resource locator, where the identified 

15 content was found, including a screen shot 

16 of the content that does not include any 

17 personally identifiable information. 

18 (iv) The date and time when the par19 ticipating technology company was notified 

20 of such content pursuant to the process 

21 under subparagraph (E). 

22 (v) Any other information the lead in23 stitution determines is appropriate. 


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1 (G) To establish requirements for an as2 sessment as required pursuant to subsection 

3 (d)(2). 

4 (H) To issue a report pursuant to sub5 section (f) on each exercise after sharing a 

6 draft of the report and providing participating 

7 technology companies and trusted flaggers who 

8 participated in the exercise with the opportunity 

9 to comment on the report. 

10 (I) Not later than 60 days after issuing a 

11 report pursuant to subsection (f) on an exer12 cise, to convene a virtual or in-person meeting 

13 with participating technology companies and 

14 trusted flaggers who participated in the exercise 

15 to discuss the exercise and other related mat16 ters, as identified by the lead institution, in 

17 consultation with the participating technology 

18 companies and trusted flaggers. 

19 (4) CONSORTIUM.—An agreement entered into 

20 under subsection (a)(1) may provide that the lead 

21 institution may execute agreements with other insti22 tutions of higher education or nonprofit institutions 

23 to establish a consortium of such institutions to as24 sist in carrying out the responsibilities of the lead 

25 institution under the agreement. To the extent that 


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1 the Under Secretary for Science and Technology 

2 identifies institutions of higher education or non3 profit institutions for participation in such a consor4 tium, the Under Secretary shall seek to ensure the 

5 participation of historically Black colleges and uni6 versities, Hispanic-serving institutions, and Tribally 

7 controlled colleges and universities. 

8 (c) TRUSTED FLAGGERS.— 

9 (1) IN GENERAL.—For purposes of the program 

10 under this section, a trusted flagger is an individual 

11 or entity that— 

12 (A) is selected by the lead institution, in 

13 coordination with participating technology com14 panies, on the basis of criteria established by 

15 the institution for such purpose; and 

16 (B) enters into an agreement with the lead 

17 institution and the participating technology 

18 companies that participate in an exercise car19 ried out under the program to perform the re20 sponsibilities specified in paragraph (2) for the 

21 duration of the exercise. 

22 (2) RESPONSIBILITIES.—The responsibilities 

23 specified in this paragraph are the following: 

24 (A) To monitor public-facing areas of the 

25 participating technology companies for online 


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1 terrorist content that may violate a written on2 line terrorist content moderation policy or pro3 cedure of the participating technology company. 

4 (B) To provide timely notification of any 

5 online terrorist content identified on the online 

6 platform of a participating technology company 

7 to such company pursuant to the process under 

8 subsection (b)(3)(E). 

9 (C) To carry out other activities requested 

10 by the lead institution, in consultation with par11 ticipating technology companies. 

12 (d) RESPONSIBILITIES OF PARTICIPATING TECH13 NOLOGY COMPANIES.— 

14 (1) AGREEMENTS.—To participate in the vol15 untary online terrorist content moderation exercise 

16 program under this section, a technology company 

17 shall enter into an agreement with the lead institu18 tion to carry out the responsibilities under this sub19 section. 

20 (2) ASSESSMENTS.—Each participating tech21 nology company shall agree— 

22 (A) to conduct an assessment of each noti23 fication communicated by a trusted flagger pur24 suant to the process established under subVerDate Sep 11 2014 04:02 Dec 03, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5209.IH H5209

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1 section (b)(3)(E) within 24 hours of receipt; 

2 and 

3 (B) to provide notice to the lead institution 

4 of the completion of each assessment conducted 

5 under this paragraph, including— 

6 (i) whether such assessment was com7 pleted within 24 hours of receipt of the no8 tification; and 

9 (ii) whether such assessment caused 

10 the participating technology company to 

11 decide to take or not take a certain action 

12 and the grounds for such action or in ac13 tion. 

14 (3) PROVISION OF INFORMATION TO LEAD IN15 STITUTION.—Each participating technology company 

16 shall agree to provide to the lead institution— 

17 (A) the written online terrorist content 

18 moderation policies and procedures of the com19 pany with respect to responding to identified 

20 online terrorist content, including any rule or 

21 community standard of the company that pro22 hibits terrorist content and information regard23 ing any system that the company uses to review 

24 online terrorist content that is reported that 

25 violates any such rule or standard, including— 


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1 (i) guidance about what online ter2 rorist content is prohibited, including ex3 amples of permissible and impermissible 

4 content and the guidelines used internally 

5 to enforce rules or community standards 

6 that prohibit online terrorist content; and 

7 (ii) information on the use of auto8 mated detection on the platform of the 

9 company; and 

10 (B) a point of contact for use by trusted 

11 flaggers to report online terrorist content pur12 suant to the process under subsection 

13 (b)(3)(E). 

14 (4) DISCLOSURE AND NOTICE REQUIRE15 MENTS.— 

16 (A) DISCLOSURE OF PARTICIPATION.— 

17 Each such participating technology company 

18 shall agree to disclose the participation of the 

19 company in the voluntary online terrorist con20 tent moderation exercise program on the online 

21 platform of the company. 

22 (B) NOTICE TO USERS.—Each such par23 ticipating technology company shall agree to 

24 provide notice to each user whose content is re25 moved or account is suspended or terminated as 


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1 a result of an exercise conducted under this sec2 tion. Such notice shall include— 

3 (i) the specific provision in the written 

4 online terrorist content moderation policies 

5 or procedures of the participating tech6 nology company that such online terrorist 

7 content was found to violate; and 

8 (ii) an explanation of the process 

9 through which the user can appeal, pursu10 ant to paragraph (5), the decision to re11 move the content or suspend or terminate 

12 the account. 

13 (C) FORM OF NOTICE.—Each such partici14 pating technology company shall agree to pro15 vide the notice required under subparagraph 

16 (B) in both human- and machine-readable for17 mats that are accessible even if a user’s account 

18 is suspended or terminated. 

19 (5) APPEALS PROCESS.—Each participating 

20 technology company shall agree to provide for a 

21 timely appeal process under which a user may chal22 lenge a content removal or account suspension or 

23 termination. Such process shall include— 

24 (A) the review of the decision to remove 

25 content or suspend an account by a person or 


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1 panel of persons who was not involved in the 

2 initial decision; 

3 (B) the provision to the user of an oppor4 tunity to present additional information that 

5 will be considered in the review; and 

6 (C) the provision to the user of notice of 

7 the decision made in the appeals process, in8 cluding a statement of the reasoning sufficient 

9 to allow the user to understand the decision. 

10 (e) TRANSPARENCY.—The Under Secretary for 

11 Science and Technology shall ensure that agreements 

12 under this section shall require that before engaging in 

13 an exercise under this section, the lead institution, an in14 stitution participating in a consortium under subsection 

15 (b)(4), and each trusted flagger agree to disclose to the 

16 Under Secretary any fiduciary or business relationship be17 tween such institution or trusted flagger and any partici18 pating technology company during the two-year period 

19 preceding the date of the exercise. 

20 (f) REPORTS.— 

21 (1) REPORT REQUIRED.—Not later than 60 

22 days after the last day of any voluntary online ter23 rorist content moderation exercise conducted under 

24 this section, the lead institution, in consultation with 


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1 the participating technology companies and trusted 

2 flaggers, shall— 

3 (A) produce a report on the voluntary on4 line terrorist content moderation exercise; 

5 (B) publish such report on the public 

6 website of the lead institution; and 

7 (C) transmit a copy of such report to— 

8 (i) the Under Secretary for Science 

9 and Technology for publication on the pub10 lic website of the Department of Homeland 

11 Security; and 

12 (ii) the Comptroller General of the 

13 United States. 

14 (2) CONTENTS OF REPORT.—Each report under 

15 paragraph (1) shall include each of the following 

16 with respect to the exercise covered by the report: 

17 (A) A rating based on the letter rating sys18 tem developed pursuant to subsection (b)(3)(D), 

19 for each participating technology company that 

20 participated in the exercise. 

21 (B) Information about— 

22 (i) the total number of notifications 

23 communicated to each participating tech24 nology company during the exercise; 


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1 (ii) the number of notifications that 

2 were assessed by each participating tech3 nology company within 24 hours of receipt 

4 as violating or not violating an online ter5 rorist content moderation policy or proce6 dure of the company and the basis for each 

7 notification, including the violation of the 

8 written online terrorist content moderation 

9 policies or procedures and ideology or 

10 ideologies associated with the content, for 

11 such assessment; and 

12 (iii) the number of notifications that 

13 were assessed after 24 hours of receipt as 

14 violating or not violating an online terrorist 

15 content moderation policy or procedure of 

16 the company and the basis for each notifi17 cation, including the violation of the writ18 ten online terrorist content moderation 

19 policies or procedures and ideology or 

20 ideologies associated with the content, for 

21 such assessment. 

22 (C) Information about any online terrorist 

23 content that a participating technology com24 pany removes from a platform of the company 

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1 tion policy or procedure of the company during 

2 the exercise, including— 

3 (i) the number of posts deleted and 

4 accounts suspended or terminated by a 

5 participating technology company for vio6 lating a written online terrorist content 

7 moderation policy or procedure of the com8 pany, disaggregated by whether flagged by 

9 a trusted flagger, internally within the 

10 technology company by an employee, by a 

11 contractor, by a law enforcement official, 

12 by a user, or through automated detection; 

13 (ii) the number of discrete posts and 

14 accounts flagged, and the number of dis15 crete posts removed and accounts sus16 pended or terminated, by a participating 

17 technology company for violating the writ18 ten online terrorist content moderation 

19 policies or procedures of the company, 

20 disaggregated by information on the spe21 cific violation identified in the written on22 line terrorist content moderation policies or 

23 procedures and the terrorist ideology or 

24 ideologies associated with the post or ac25 count, disaggregated by whether flagged by 


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1 a trusted flagger, internally within the par2 ticipating technology company by an em3 ployee or contractor, by a law enforcement 

4 official, by a user, or through automated 

5 detection; 

6 (iii) the number of discrete posts and 

7 accounts flagged, and number of discrete 

8 posts removed and accounts suspended or 

9 terminated by a participating technology 

10 company for violating the written online 

11 terrorist content moderation policies or 

12 procedures of the company, disaggregated 

13 by the format of the content, such as text, 

14 audio, image, video, or live stream; and 

15 (iv) in the case of each exercise after 

16 the initial exercise, an evaluation of 

17 changes over time with respect to each cat18 egory of information referred to in clauses 

19 (i) through (iii). 

20 (D) Information on the exercise, including 

21 the dates of the exercise and names of the 

22 trusted flaggers that participated, together with 

23 information on how many notifications each 

24 such trusted flagger submitted during the exer25 cise. 


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1 (E) The written online terrorist content 

2 moderation policies and procedures of each of 

3 the participating technology companies, to4 gether with the corresponding definition for on5 line terrorist content adopted by each of the 

6 participating technology companies, and a de7 scription of the appeals process of each such 

8 company as required pursuant to subsection 

9 (d)(5). 

10 (F) Any identifiable trends and analysis 

11 developed from conducting the exercise, as de12 termined appropriate by the lead institution, in 

13 consultation with participating technology com14 panies and trusted flaggers. 

15 (G) Any information provided by a partici16 pating technology company regarding efforts of 

17 the company to— 

18 (i) counter terrorist narratives and en19 hance technological capabilities to identify 

20 and counter online terrorism content; 

21 (ii) maintain policies or procedures 

22 within the company that— 

23 (I) prioritize the mental health of 

24 individuals working within the com25 pany who participate in the efforts to 


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1 implement the written online terrorist 

2 content moderation policies or proce3 dures of the company; and 

4 (II) make available voluntary 

5 mental health support, as needed, to 

6 such employees and to contractors 

7 and trusted flaggers; and 

8 (iii) any other information determined 

9 appropriate by the lead institution. 

10 (3) FORMAT.—Each report under this sub11 section shall be made available in both a human12 and a machine-readable format. 

13 (4) BRIEFINGS.—Not later than 30 days after 

14 receiving a report under paragraph (1)(C)(i), the 

15 Under Secretary for Science and Technology, in con16 sultation with the Under Secretary for Strategy, 

17 Policy, and Plans, shall provide to the Committee on 

18 Homeland Security of the House of Representatives 

19 and the Committee on Homeland Security and Gov20 ernmental Affairs of the Senate a briefing on the 

21 voluntary online terrorist content moderation exer22 cise program under this section. 

23 (g) PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP.— 

24 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Under Secretary for 

25 Science and Technology is authorized to enter into— 


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1 (A) an agreement using other transactional 

2 authority with the lead institution for purposes 

3 of carrying out this section; and 

4 (B) public-private partnerships with par5 ticipating technology companies in which par6 ticipating technology companies agree provide 

7 at least 80 percent of the funding to carry out 

8 this section. 

9 (2) OTHER TRANSACTIONAL AUTHORITY.—In 

10 this subsection, the term ‘‘other transactional au11 thority’’ means the authority under section 831 of 

12 the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 391). 

13 (h) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 

14 authorized to be appropriated to carry out this Act— 

15 (1) $300,000 for fiscal year 2020; and 

16 (2) $150,000 for each of fiscal years 2021 

17 through 2026. 

18 (i) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in the Act 

19 shall be construed as— 

20 (1) requiring participating technology compa21 nies to adopt standards for the moderation of online 

22 terrorist content; 

23 (2) authorizing the Department of Homeland 

24 Security to participate in decision making regarding 


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1 the removal of content by participating technology 

2 companies; 

3 (3) requiring participating technology compa4 nies to provide user content to the Department of 

5 Homeland Security, any institution participating in 

6 the exercise program, or any other Federal, State, 

7 local, tribal, or territorial government or inter8 national body; or 

9 (4) authorizing the Department of Homeland 

10 Security to allow subjective judgments regarding the 

11 treatment of online content by a participating tech12 nology company in the objective criteria established 

13 pursuant to subsection (a)(2). 

14 (j) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

15 (1) The term ‘‘Hispanic-serving institution’’ has 

16 the meaning given such term in section 502(a) of 

17 the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 

18 1101a(a)). 

19 (2) The term ‘‘historically Black colleges and 

20 universities’’ means a part B institution described in 

21 section 322(2) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 

22 (20 U.S.C. 1061(2)). 

23 (3) The term ‘‘institution of higher education’’ 

24 has the meaning given such term in section 101 of 


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1 the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 

2 1001). 

3 (4) The term ‘‘online terrorist content’’ shall be 

4 defined by each technology company participating in 

5 an exercise under this section with respect to a plat6 form of the company in the community guidelines, 

7 terms of service, or relevant policy applicable to such 

8 platform. 

9 (5) The term ‘‘personally identifiable informa10 tion’’ means any information about an individual 

11 elicited, collected, stored, or maintained by an agen12 cy or owner or operator of a participating technology 

13 company, including the following: 

14 (A) Any information that can be used to 

15 distinguish or trace the identity of an indi16 vidual, such as a name, social security number, 

17 date or place of birth, mother’s maiden name, 

18 telephone number, or biometric records. 

19 (B) Any other information that is linked or 

20 linkable to an individual, such as medical, edu21 cational, financial, or employment information. 

22 (6) The term ‘‘participating technology com23 pany’’ means a business entity that owns or operates 

24 any public-facing website, web application, or digital 

25 application, including a mobile application, social 


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1 network, advertising network, search engine, or 

2 email service that participates in the voluntary on3 line terrorist content moderation exercise program 

4 under this Act. 

5 (7) The term ‘‘Tribally controlled college or 

6 university’’ has the meaning given such term in sec7 tion 2 of the Tribally Controlled Colleges and Uni8 versities Assistance Act of 1978 (25 U.S.C. 1801). 

9 (k) SUNSET.—The authority to carry out this section 

10 shall terminate on the date that is seven years after the 

11 date of the enactment of this Act. 

12 SEC. 3. COMPTROLLER GENERAL REPORT. 

13 Not later than 180 days after the Comptroller Gen14 eral of the United States receives the sixth report under 

15 section 2(f), the Comptroller General shall submit to Con16 gress a report on the implementation of section 2. 

Æ 


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