I 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 8922 

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to limit interactive computer 

service immunity. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

DECEMBER 9, 2020 

Ms. GABBARD (for herself and Mr. GOSAR) introduced the following bill; which 

was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL 

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to limit 

interactive computer service immunity. 

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 ‘‘Break Up Big Tech 

5 Act of 2020’’. 

6 SEC. 2. LIMITATION ON INTERACTIVE COMPUTER SERVICE 

7 IMMUNITY. 

8 Section 230(c) of the Communications Act of 1934 

9 (47 U.S.C. 230(c)) is amended by adding at the end the 

10 following: 


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1 ‘‘(3) LIMITATION.—After the date of the enact2 ment of this paragraph, paragraphs (1) and (2) 

3 shall not apply to a provider of an interactive com4 puter service with respect to a service if the provider 

5 after such date— 

6 ‘‘(A)(i) sells advertising in which an adver7 tisement is displayed to a user of such service 

8 based on— 

9 ‘‘(I) personal traits of the user; 

10 ‘‘(II) previous location information 

11 with respect to the user; 

12 ‘‘(III) personal information from a 

13 profile about the user that is created for 

14 the purpose of selling advertisements; 

15 ‘‘(IV) the previous online or offline be16 havior of the user; 

17 ‘‘(V) the content of the website, online 

18 service, online application, or mobile appli19 cation to which the user is connected; 

20 ‘‘(VI) the location of the user, as of 

21 the time at which the advertising is di22 rected to the user; or 

23 ‘‘(VII) the search terms that the user 

24 applied to arrive at the website, service, or 


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1 application to which the user is connected; 

2 and 

3 ‘‘(ii) displays an advertisement in a man4 ner described under clause (i) to a user who did 

5 not opt-in to having an advertisement displayed 

6 to such user in such a manner; 

7 ‘‘(B) through such service, places items, or 

8 facilitates the placement of items, into the 

9 stream of commerce; 

10 ‘‘(C) through such service, collects data for 

11 commercial purposes other than receiving from 

12 users of such service direct payment for the use 

13 of such service; or 

14 ‘‘(D) uses a design or product that addicts, 

15 or whose purpose is to addict, users to such 

16 service. 

17 ‘‘(4) EXCEPTION.— 

18 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding para19 graph (1), an owner or operator of a social 

20 media service that displays user-generated con21 tent in an order other than chronological order, 

22 delays the display of such content relative to 

23 other content, or otherwise hinders the display 

24 of such content relative to other content, if for 

25 a reason other than to restrict access to or 


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1 availability of material described in paragraph 

2 (2)(A) or to carry out the direction of the user 

3 that generated or requested such content or 

4 generated or requested restricted access to such 

5 content, shall be treated as a publisher or 

6 speaker of such content. 

7 ‘‘(B) DEFINITIONS.—In this paragraph— 

8 ‘‘(i) SOCIAL MEDIA SERVICE.—The 

9 term ‘social media service’ means any 

10 interactive computer service provided over 

11 the Internet that connects users for the 

12 purpose of such users engaging in dia13 logue, sharing information, collaborating, 

14 or otherwise interacting. 

15 ‘‘(ii) USER-GENERATED CONTENT.— 

16 The term ‘user-generated content’ means 

17 content that is supplied on a social media 

18 service by an information content provider 

19 who is a user of such service.’’. 

Æ 


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