II 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 2500 

To require providers of interactive computer services to publicly disclose 

information relating to requests or recommendations made by government 

entities to moderate content, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JULY 28, 2021 

Mr. RUBIO (for himself, Mr. SCOTT of Florida, Mr. HAGERTY, Ms. LUMMIS, 

and Mr. JOHNSON) introduced the following bill; which was read twice 

and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation 

A BILL 

To require providers of interactive computer services to publicly disclose information relating to requests or recommendations made by government entities to moderate 

content, 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 ‘‘Preventing Restric5 tions and Empowering Speakers to Enable Robust and 

6 Varied Exchanges in Online Speech’’ or the ‘‘PRESERVE 

7 Online Speech Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. PUBLIC DISCLOSURE OF REQUEST OR REC2 OMMENDATION TO MODERATE CONTENT. 

3 (a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section— 

4 (1) the term ‘‘Commission’’ means the Federal 

5 Communications Commission; 

6 (2) the term ‘‘government entity’’ means— 

7 (A) a United States or foreign government 

8 entity; and 

9 (B) an entity acting on behalf of an entity 

10 described in subparagraph (A); and 

11 (3) the terms ‘‘information content provider’’ 

12 and ‘‘interactive computer service’’ have the mean13 ings given those terms in section 230 of the Commu14 nications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 230). 

15 (b) REQUIREMENT TO DISCLOSE.—Except as pro16 vided in subsection (c), not later than 7 days after the 

17 date on which a government entity requests or rec18 ommends that a provider of an interactive computer serv19 ice moderate content on the interactive computer service, 

20 including editing, deleting, throttling, limiting the reach 

21 of, reducing or eliminating the ability of an information 

22 content provider to earn revenue from, or comment upon, 

23 information provided by an information content provider, 

24 terminating or limiting an account or usership, and any 

25 other content moderation, promotion, and other curation 


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1 practices, the provider shall issue a public disclosure on 

2 a public website hosted by the provider that includes— 

3 (1) specific information about the request or 

4 recommendation; 

5 (2) the government entity that made the re6 quest or recommendation and the point of contact 

7 for that government entity; 

8 (3) the rationale for the request or rec9 ommendation; and 

10 (4) any steps taken by the provider as a result 

11 of the request or recommendation. 

12 (c) EXCEPTION.—Subsection (b) shall not apply with 

13 respect to actions taken by a provider of an interactive 

14 computer service as a result of a Federal law enforcement 

15 proceeding or is in the interest of national security. 

16 (d) FINES FOR NONCOMPLIANCE.—Any provider of 

17 an interactive computer service that does not comply with 

18 the requirements under subsection (b) shall be fined 

19 $50,000 per day of noncompliance, which fines shall be 

20 collected by the Commission for deposit in the Rural Dig21 ital Opportunity Fund. 

22 (e) ANNUAL REPORT.—The Commission shall, on an 

23 annual basis, compile and submit to the Committees on 

24 the Judiciary of the Senate and the House of Representa25 tives a report that includes the contents of each public 


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1 disclosure made by a provider of an interactive computer 

2 service under subsection (b) during the year covered by 

3 the report. 

Æ 


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