I 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 6463 

To require the publication of the terms of service of certain social media 

company platforms. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

NOVEMBER 21, 2023 

Mr. GOTTHEIMER (for himself and Mr. BACON) introduced the following bill; 

which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in 

addition to the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, for a period 

to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee 

concerned 

A BILL 

To require the publication of the terms of service of certain 

social media company platforms. 

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 ‘‘Stopping Terrorists 

5 Online Presence and Holding Accountable Tech Entities 

6 Act of 2023’’ or as the ‘‘STOP HATE Act of 2023’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. TERMS OF SERVICE PUBLICATION. 

2 (a) No later than 180 days after the date of enact3 ment, a social media company shall post terms of service, 

4 or lack thereof, for each social media platform owned or 

5 operated by the company in a manner reasonably designed 

6 to inform all users of the social media platform of the ex7 istence and contents of the terms of service applicable to 

8 the following: 

9 (1) A foreign terrorist organization designated 

10 under section 219 of the Immigration and Nation11 ality Act. 

12 (2) Individuals or entities designated as Spe13 cially Designated Global Terrorists under Executive 

14 Order 13224. 

15 (b) In addition to the terms of service published pur16 suant to (a), the social media company shall also publish 

17 the following information: 

18 (1) Contact information for the purpose of al19 lowing users to ask the social media company ques20 tions about the terms of service. 

21 (2) A description of the process that users must 

22 follow to flag content, groups, or other users that 

23 they believe violate the terms of service, and the so24 cial media company’s commitments on response and 

25 resolution time. 


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1 (3) A list of potential actions the social media 

2 company may take against an item of content or a 

3 user, including, but not limited to, removal, demone4 tization, deprioritization, or banning. 

5 SEC. 3. TERMS OF SERVICE REPORT TO THE ATTORNEY 

6 GENERAL. 

7 (a) IN GENERAL.—A social media company shall 

8 electronically submit on a triannual basis a terms of serv9 ice report to the Attorney General pursuant to (b), regard10 ing information and enforcement of the terms of service 

11 identified in section 2(a), that will include— 

12 (1) the version of the terms of service for each 

13 social media platform owned or operated by the com14 pany in effect as of the date of the report; 

15 (2) data related to violations of the terms of 

16 service of identified under section 2 of this Act, in17 cluding but not limited to: 

18 (A) The total number of flagged items of 

19 content. 

20 (B) The total number of actioned items of 

21 content. 

22 (C) The total number of actioned items of 

23 content that resulted in action taken by the so24 cial media company against the user or group 

25 of users responsible for the content. 


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1 (D) The total number of actioned items of 

2 content that were removed, demonetized, or 

3 deprioritized by the social media company. 

4 (E) The number of times actioned items of 

5 content were viewed by users. 

6 (F) The number of times actioned items of 

7 content were shared, and the number of users 

8 that viewed the content before it was actioned. 

9 (G) The number of times users appealed 

10 social media company actions taken on that 

11 platform and the number of reversals of social 

12 media company actions on appeal disaggregated 

13 by each type of action. 

14 (3) All information required by (2) shall be 

15 disaggregated into the following categories: 

16 (A) The category of content, including any 

17 relevant categories described in (2). 

18 (B) The type of content, including, but not 

19 limited to, posts, comments, messages, profiles 

20 of users, or groups of users. 

21 (C) The type of media of the content, in22 cluding, but not limited to, text, images, and 

23 videos. 

24 (D) How the content was flagged, includ25 ing, but not limited to, flagged by company emVerDate Sep 11 2014 21:26 Dec 01, 2023 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6463.IH H6463

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1 ployees or contractors, flagged by artificial in2 telligence software, flagged by community mod3 erators, flagged by civil society partners, and 

4 flagged by users. 

5 (E) How the content was actioned, includ6 ing, but not limited to, actioned by company 

7 employees or contractors, actioned by artificial 

8 intelligence software, actioned by community 

9 moderators, actioned by civil society partners, 

10 and actioned by users. 

11 (4) A complete and detailed evaluation of the 

12 changes over time, including identifiable trends and 

13 analysis, with respect to the information in clauses 

14 (1)–(3) since the previous report, if applicable, and 

15 those thereafter. 

16 (b) DEADLINE.—Not later than 360 days after the 

17 date of enactment of this Act, a social media company 

18 shall submit the first report required pursuant to sub19 section (a). After the submission of the first report, the 

20 following reports will occur no later than January 31, 

21 April 30, and October 31 the following years. 

22 (c) PUBLICATION.—The Attorney General shall make 

23 all reports submitted under this section available to the 

24 public in a searchable repository on the Department of 

25 Justice’s website. 


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1 SEC. 4. CIVIL PENALTY. 

2 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Attorney General may bring 

3 an action for a civil penalty of not more than $5,000,000 

4 per violation per day against any social media company 

5 that does not submit a report required under section 3. 

6 (b) VIOLATIONS.—A social media company shall be 

7 considered in violation of the provisions of this chapter 

8 for each day the social media company does any of the 

9 following: 

10 (1) Fails to post terms of service in accordance 

11 with section 2. 

12 (2) Fails to timely submit to the Attorney Gen13 eral a report required pursuant to section 3. 

14 (3) Materially omits or misrepresents required 

15 information in a report submitted pursuant to sec16 tion 3. 

17 SEC. 5. REPORTS. 

18 (a) NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE ESTIMATE.—Not later 

19 than 360 days after the date of enactment, the Director 

20 of National Intelligence shall submit a National Intel21 ligence Estimate on the use of platforms by the individuals 

22 and entities identified under section 2(a) to Congress. The 

23 Director shall ensure an unclassified version of the assess24 ment is published on the Department’s website no later 

25 than 30 days following the submission to Congress. 


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1 (b) COMPTROLLER GENERAL REPORTS.—Not later 

2 than 540 days after the date of enactment, and then again 

3 540 days after, the Comptroller General shall submit to 

4 Congress reports on the implementation of this Act. 

5 SEC. 6. SUNSET. 

6 The authority to carry out this Act shall terminate 

7 on the date that is five years after the date of enactment 

8 of this Act. 

9 SEC. 7. DEFINITIONS. 

10 In this Act: 

11 (a) ACTIONED.—The term ‘‘actioned’’ means a social 

12 media company, due to a suspected or confirmed violation 

13 of the terms of service, has taken some form of action, 

14 including, but not limited to, removal, demonetization, 

15 deprioritization, or banning, against the relevant user or 

16 relevant item of content. 

17 (b) CONTENT.—The term ‘‘content’’ means state18 ments or comments made by users and media that are 

19 created, posted, shared, or otherwise interacted with by 

20 users on an internet-based service or application. This 

21 does not include media put on a service or application ex22 clusively for the purpose of cloud storage, transmitting 

23 files, or file collaboration. 

24 (c) SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM.—The term ‘‘social 

25 media platform’’ means any entity subject to the jurisdicVerDate Sep 11 2014 21:26 Dec 01, 2023 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6463.IH H6463

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1 tion of the Federal Trade Commission under section 

2 5(a)(2) of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 

3 45(a)(2)) that— 

4 (1) is a website, desktop application, or mobile 

5 application that— 

6 (A) permits a person to become a reg7 istered user, establish an account, or create a 

8 profile for the purpose of allowing the user to 

9 create, share, and view user-generated content 

10 through such an account or profile; 

11 (B) enables one or more users to generate 

12 content that can be viewed by other users of the 

13 platform; and 

14 (C) primarily serves as a medium for users 

15 to interact with content generated by other 

16 users of the platform and for the platform to 

17 deliver ads to users; and 

18 (2) has at least 25,000,000 unique monthly 

19 users in the United States for a majority of the 

20 months in the most recent 12-month period. 

21 (d) SOCIAL MEDIA COMPANY.—The term ‘‘social 

22 media company’’ means a person or entity that owns or 

23 operates one or more social media platforms. 

24 (e) PUBLICLY TRADED COMPANY.—The term ‘‘pub25 licly traded company’’ means any company whose prinVerDate Sep 11 2014 21:26 Dec 01, 2023 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6463.IH H6463

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1 cipal class of shares is listed on a stock exchange; and 

2 can be readily purchased or sold by the public; and in3 cludes all subsidiaries of a company. 

4 (f) CRITICAL TRADING PARTNER.—The term ‘‘crit5 ical trading partner’’ means an entity that has the ability 

6 to restrict or impede the access of a business user to— 

7 ‘‘the users or customers of the business user; or a tool 

8 or service that the business user needs to effectively serve 

9 the users or customers of the business user.’’ 

10 (g) TERMS OF SERVICE.—The term ‘‘terms of serv11 ice’’ means a policy or set of policies adopted by a social 

12 media company that specifies, at least, the user behavior 

13 and activities that are permitted on the internet-based 

14 service owned or operated by the social media company, 

15 and the user behavior and activities that may subject the 

16 user or an item of content to being actioned. 

Æ 


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