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. 

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 ‘‘Removing Section 230 

5 Immunity for Official Accounts of Censoring Foreign Ad6 versaries Act’’. 

7 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 

8 In this Act: 


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•S 941 IS

1 (1) CENSORING FOREIGN ADVERSARY.—The 

2 term ‘‘censoring foreign adversary’’ means an adver3 sarial foreign government that— 

4 (A) restricts access to covered social media 

5 platforms; and 

6 (B) is designated as a censoring foreign 

7 adversary pursuant to section 3. 

8 (2) COVERED, VERIFIED, OR OTHER AUTHEN9 TIC ACCOUNT.—The term ‘‘covered, verified, or 

10 other authentic account’’ means any account on a 

11 covered social media platform that— 

12 (A) is under the control or working on be13 half of— 

14 (i) a government agency, department, 

15 ministry, or institution of a censoring for16 eign adversary; 

17 (ii) a government official of a cen18 soring foreign adversary, including heads 

19 of state, elected officials, appointed min20 isters, ambassadors, and official spokes21 persons; or 

22 (iii) a company, or the employees of a 

23 company, that— 

24 (I) is directly or indirectly owned 

25 by a censoring foreign adversary; 


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1 (II) is controlled by a censoring 

2 foreign adversary that has the author3 ity to decide important matters with 

4 respect to such company; or 

5 (III) has, as a shareholder hold6 ing at least 10 percent of the out7 standing voting stock or shares of the 

8 company, a censoring foreign adver9 sary; and 

10 (B)(i) displays a badge, check mark, or 

11 other public-facing identification tool that— 

12 (I) is issued by the platform; and 

13 (II) is used to indicate the authen14 ticity, validity, or verification of the per15 son, organization, government, or other en16 tity, represented by the account; or 

17 (ii) has more than 500,000 followers. 

18 (3) COVERED SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM.—The 

19 term ‘‘covered social media platform’’— 

20 (A) means an Internet website, application, 

21 or platform that— 

22 (i) is open to the public; 

23 (ii) allows citizens from any country 

24 to create an account on, register for, and 


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•S 941 IS

1 enjoy as a user, such website, application, 

2 or platform; 

3 (iii) enables users to communicate 

4 with other users for the primary purpose 

5 of posting information, comments, mes6 sages, or images; 

7 (iv) has more than 50,000,000 active 

8 users in the United States in a calendar 

9 month; and 

10 (v) is headquartered, or has its prin11 cipal place of business, in the United 

12 States; and 

13 (B) does not include— 

14 (i) electronic mail; or 

15 (ii) an online service, application, or 

16 website— 

17 (I) that consists primarily of 

18 news, sports, entertainment, or other 

19 information or content that is not 

20 user generated, but is preselected by 

21 the provider; and 

22 (II) for which any chat, com23 ments, or interactive functionality is 

24 incidental to, directly related to, or 


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1 dependent on the provision of the con2 tent described in subparagraph (I). 

3 (4) FOLLOWER.—The term ‘‘follower’’ means 

4 an account that has taken any action to subscribe to 

5 another account’s content, updates, or posts. 

6 (5) USER.—The term ‘‘user’’ means a person 

7 or entity who posts, uploads, transmits, shares, or 

8 otherwise publishes or receives content through a so9 cial media platform. 

10 SEC. 3. DESIGNATED CENSORING FOREIGN ADVERSARIES. 

11 The Secretary of State shall compile a list of cen12 soring foreign adversaries, which shall include— 

13 (1) the Government of the People’s Republic of 

14 China; 

15 (2) the Government of the Russian Federation; 

16 (3) the Government of the Democratic People’s 

17 Republic of Korea; 

18 (4) the Government of the Islamic Republic of 

19 Iran; 

20 (5) the Government of the Republic of Cuba; 

21 (6) the Government of the Syrian Arab Repub22 lic; and 

23 (7) the regime of Nicola ́s Maduro in Venezuela. 


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1 SEC. 4. LIABILITY PROTECTION. 

2 (a) IN GENERAL.—Covered social media platforms 

3 that knowingly host, distribute, or actively display a cov4 ered, verified, or other authentic account of a censoring 

5 foreign adversary shall not receive any protection under 

6 section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 

7 U.S.C. 230) for content shared, edited, or created by such 

8 account. 

9 (b) CLARIFICATION.—For purposes of subsection (a), 

10 a covered social media platform is deemed to have knowl11 edge with respect to any content shared, edited, or created 

12 by a covered, verified, or other authentic account that 

13 meets the requirements described in section 2(2)(B)(i). 

Æ 


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