II 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 4337 

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to stop granting immunity subsidies to companies that engage in behavioral advertising, and for other 

purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JULY 28, 2020 

Mr. HAWLEY introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation 

A BILL 

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to stop granting 

immunity subsidies to companies that engage in behavioral advertising, 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 ‘‘Behavioral Advertising 

5 Decisions Are Downgrading Services Act’’ or the ‘‘BAD 

6 ADS Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. LIMITATION ON IMMUNITY. 

2 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 230(c) of the Communica3 tions Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 230(c)) is amended by add4 ing at the end the following: 

5 ‘‘(3) LIMITATION ON PROTECTION.— 

6 ‘‘(A) DEFINITIONS.—In this paragraph— 

7 ‘‘(i) the term ‘advertisement server’ 

8 means a person that serves or delivers ad9 vertisements to a user of a website, online 

10 service, online application, or mobile appli11 cation; 

12 ‘‘(ii) the term ‘behavioral adver13 tising’— 

14 ‘‘(I) means a form of advertising 

15 in which an advertisement is displayed 

16 to a user of an interactive computer 

17 service based on— 

18 ‘‘(aa) the personal traits of 

19 the user; 

20 ‘‘(bb) previous location in21 formation with respect to the 

22 user; 

23 ‘‘(cc) personal information 

24 from a profile about the user 

25 that is created for the purpose of 

26 selling advertisements; or 


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1 ‘‘(dd) the previous online or 

2 offline behavior of the user; and 

3 ‘‘(II) does not include contextual 

4 advertising, such as advertising that is 

5 directed to a user based on— 

6 ‘‘(aa) the content of the 

7 website, online service, online ap8 plication, or mobile application to 

9 which the user is connected; 

10 ‘‘(bb) the location of the 

11 user, as of the time at which the 

12 advertising is directed to the 

13 user; or 

14 ‘‘(cc) the search terms that 

15 the user applied to arrive at the 

16 website, service, or application to 

17 which the user is connected; and 

18 ‘‘(iii) the term ‘covered provider’— 

19 ‘‘(I) means an entity that— 

20 ‘‘(aa) provides an interactive 

21 computer service— 

22 ‘‘(AA) through a 

23 website, online application, 

24 or mobile application (in25 cluding a single interactive 


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1 computer service that is pro2 vided through more than 1 

3 such website or application); 

4 ‘‘(BB) through which 

5 information provided by an6 other information content 

7 provider is distributed; and 

8 ‘‘(CC) that, in any 

9 month during the most re10 cently completed 12-month 

11 period, more than 

12 30,000,000 users in the 

13 United States (or more than 

14 300,000,000 users world15 wide) accessed, without re16 gard to the means by which 

17 the users accessed the serv18 ice; and 

19 ‘‘(bb) during the most re20 cently completed taxable year, 

21 had more than $1,500,000,000 in 

22 global revenue; and 

23 ‘‘(II) does not include an organi24 zation described in section 501(c) of 

25 the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 


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1 that is exempt from taxation under 

2 section 501(a) of such Code. 

3 ‘‘(B) APPLICABILITY.—The protections 

4 provided under paragraphs (1) and (2) shall not 

5 apply with respect to a covered provider for any 

6 claim arising during the 30-day period begin7 ning on the date on which the covered pro8 vider— 

9 ‘‘(i) displays behavioral advertising to 

10 a user of the interactive computer service 

11 described in subparagraph (A)(iii)(I)(aa) 

12 provided by the covered provider; or 

13 ‘‘(ii) provides data regarding a user of 

14 the interactive computer service described 

15 in clause (i) to another person knowing 

16 that the other person will use that data to 

17 create or display behavioral advertising. 

18 ‘‘(C) LIABILITY OF ADVERTISEMENT SERV19 ERS IN PLACE OF COVERED PROVIDERS.—An 

20 advertisement server shall be held liable for any 

21 claim brought against a covered provider be22 cause of the application of subparagraph (B) if, 

23 after the covered provider directs the advertise24 ment server not to serve or deliver behavioral 

25 advertising to users of the interactive computer 


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1 service described in subparagraph (A)(iii)(I)(aa) 

2 provided by the covered provider (or if the ad3 vertisement server fails to provide reasonably 

4 accessible means to receive that direction from 

5 the covered provider), the covered provider un6 knowingly takes the action described in sub7 paragraph (B)(i) because of an action taken by 

8 the advertisement server, including the failure 

9 of the advertisement server to provide the cov10 ered provider with a conspicuous disclosure re11 garding the category of advertisements to be 

12 displayed.’’. 

13 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—This section, and the amend14 ments made by this section, shall take effect on the date 

15 that is 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act. 

Æ 


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