I 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 5495 

To prohibit providers of email services from using filtering algorithms to 

flag emails from political campaigns that consumers have elected to 

receive as spam. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

SEPTEMBER 14, 2023 

Mrs. LESKO (for herself, Ms. VAN DUYNE, Mr. STEUBE, Mr. PFLUGER, Mr. 

DUNCAN, Mr. HIGGINS of Louisiana, Mr. ISSA, and Ms. STEFANIK) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy 

and Commerce 

A BILL 

To prohibit providers of email services from using filtering 

algorithms to flag emails from political campaigns that 

consumers have elected to receive as spam. 

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 ‘‘Political Bias In Algo5 rithm Sorting Emails Act of 2023’’ or the ‘‘Political BIAS 

6 Emails Act of 2023’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. UNFAIR AND DECEPTIVE ACTS AND PRACTICES RE2 LATING TO FILTERING POLITICAL EMAILS 

3 THAT A CONSUMER HAS ELECTED TO RE4 CEIVE. 

5 (a) CONDUCT PROHIBITED.— 

6 (1) IN GENERAL.—It shall be unlawful for an 

7 operator of an email service to use a filtering algo8 rithm to apply a label to an email sent to an email 

9 account from a political campaign unless the owner 

10 or user of the account took action to apply such a 

11 label. 

12 (2) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The prohibition under 

13 paragraph (1) shall take effect on the date that is 

14 3 months after the date of enactment of this Act. 

15 (b) QUARTERLY TRANSPARENCY REPORT.— 

16 (1) IN GENERAL.—Beginning with the first 

17 year that begins on or after the date that is 120 

18 days after the date of enactment of this Act, each 

19 operator of an email service shall be required to 

20 make publicly available, on a quarterly basis, a 

21 transparency report that meets the requirements of 

22 this subsection. 

23 (2) CONTENT OF REPORT.—Each quarterly re24 port by an operator of an email service required 

25 under this subsection shall include the following: 


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1 (A) The total number of instances during 

2 the previous quarter in which emails from polit3 ical campaigns were flagged as spam. 

4 (B) The number of instances during the 

5 previous quarter in which emails from political 

6 campaigns were flagged as spam by a filtering 

7 algorithm without direction from the email ac8 count owner or user. 

9 (C) The total number of instances during 

10 the previous quarter when emails from political 

11 campaigns of candidates belonging to the Re12 publican Party were flagged as spam. 

13 (D) The percentage of emails during the 

14 previous quarter of the year flagged as spam 

15 from political campaigns of candidates belong16 ing to the Republican party. 

17 (E) The number of instances during the 

18 previous quarter in which emails from political 

19 campaigns of candidates belonging to the Re20 publican Party were flagged as spam by a fil21 tering algorithm without direction from the 

22 email account owner or user. 

23 (F) The percentage of emails during the 

24 previous quarter of the year flagged as spam by 

25 a filtering algorithm without direction from the 


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1 email account owner or user for emails from po2 litical campaigns of candidates belonging to the 

3 Republican Party. 

4 (G) The total number of instances during 

5 the previous quarter when emails from political 

6 campaigns of candidates belonging to the 

7 Democratic Party were flagged as spam. 

8 (H) The percentage of emails during the 

9 previous quarter of the year flagged as spam 

10 from political campaigns of candidates belong11 ing to the Democratic party. 

12 (I) The number of instances during the 

13 previous quarter in which emails from political 

14 campaigns of candidates belonging to the 

15 Democratic Party were flagged as spam by a 

16 filtering algorithm without direction from the 

17 email account owner or user. 

18 (J) The percentage of emails during the 

19 previous quarter of the year flagged as spam by 

20 a filtering algorithm without direction from the 

21 email account owner or user for emails from po22 litical campaigns of candidates belonging to the 

23 Democratic party. 

24 (K) A descriptive summary of the kinds of 

25 tools, practices, actions, and techniques used by 


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1 an operator of an email service during the pre2 vious quarter in determining which emails from 

3 political campaigns to flag as spam. 

4 (3) PUBLICATION AND FORMAT.—The operator 

5 of an email service shall publish each quarterly re6 port required under this subsection with an open li7 cense, in a machine-readable and open format, and 

8 in a location that is easily accessible to consumers. 

9 (c) DISCLOSURE FOR POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS.— 

10 (1) IN GENERAL.—Beginning 3 months after 

11 the date of the enactment of this Act, each operator 

12 of an email service shall be required to disclose to 

13 a political campaign, upon the request of the cam14 paign and subject to paragraph (3), a report that in15 cludes any of the information described in paragraph 

16 (2) that is requested by the campaign. 

17 (2) CONTENT OF THE DISCLOSURE.—The infor18 mation described in this paragraph is the following: 

19 (A) The number of instances during the 

20 previous quarter when emails from the political 

21 campaign requesting the information were 

22 flagged as spam. 

23 (B) The percentage of emails sent from 

24 the political campaign requesting the informaVerDate Sep 11 2014 05:06 Sep 16, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5495.IH H5495

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1 tion that were flagged as spam during the pre2 vious quarter. 

3 (C) The number of instances during the 

4 previous calendar quarter when emails from the 

5 political campaign requesting the information 

6 were flagged as spam by a filtering algorithm. 

7 (D) The total number of emails sent from 

8 the political campaign requesting the informa9 tion that reached the intended recipient’s pri10 mary inbox. 

11 (E) The percentage of emails sent from 

12 the political campaign requesting the informa13 tion that reached the intended recipient’s pri14 mary inbox. 

15 (F) A descriptive summary as to why an 

16 email from the political campaign requesting 

17 the information did not reach the intended re18 cipient’s primary inbox. 

19 (3) FREQUENCY OF REQUESTS.—A political 

20 campaign may not request that an operator of an 

21 email service provide a report containing any of the 

22 information described in paragraph (2) more than— 

23 (A) once per week during election years; 

24 (B) twice per month during non-election 

25 years; and 


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1 (C) once a week in the 12 months pre2 ceding the date of a special election in which a 

3 candidate associated with the political campaign 

4 is seeking election. 

5 (4) BEST PRACTICES.—An operator of an email 

6 service shall provide to a political campaign, upon 

7 request, best practices on steps the political cam8 paign should take to increase the number of emails 

9 from the political campaign that reach the intended 

10 recipient’s primary inbox. 

11 (5) DEADLINE FOR PROVIDING DISCLOSURE TO

12 POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS.—An operator of an email 

13 service that receives a request from a political cam14 paign for a disclosure report described in paragraph 

15 (1) or best practices described in paragraph (4) shall 

16 provide such report or best practices to the political 

17 campaign not later than 4 days after the operator 

18 receives the request. 

19 (d) ENFORCEMENT BY THE FEDERAL TRADE COM20 MISSION.— 

21 (1) UNFAIR OR DECEPTIVE ACTS OR PRAC22 TICES.—A violation of subsection (a), (b), or (c) 

23 shall be treated as a violation of a rule defining an 

24 unfair or a deceptive act or practice under section 


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1 18(a)(1)(B) of the Federal Trade Commission Act 

2 (15 U.S.C. 57a(a)(1)(B)). 

3 (2) POWERS OF COMMISSION.— 

4 (A) IN GENERAL.—The Federal Trade 

5 Commission shall enforce this section in the 

6 same manner, by the same means, and with the 

7 same jurisdiction, powers, and duties as though 

8 all applicable terms and provisions of the Fed9 eral Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et 

10 seq.) were incorporated into and made a part of 

11 this section. 

12 (B) PRIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES.—Any 

13 person who violates subsection (a), (b), or (c) 

14 shall be subject to the penalties and entitled to 

15 the privileges and immunities provided in the 

16 Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 41 

17 et seq.). 

18 (C) AUTHORITY PRESERVED.—Nothing in 

19 this section shall be construed to limit the au20 thority of the Federal Trade Commission under 

21 any other provision of law. 

22 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 

23 In this Act: 

24 (1) FILTERING ALGORITHM.—The term ‘‘fil25 tering algorithm’’ means a computational process, 


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1 including one derived from algorithmic decision mak2 ing, machine learning, statistical analysis, or other 

3 data processing or artificial intelligence techniques, 

4 used by an email service to identify and filter emails 

5 sent to an email account. 

6 (2) OPERATOR.— 

7 (A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘‘operator’’ 

8 means any person who operates an email serv9 ice and includes any person that wholly owns a 

10 subsidiary entity that operates an email service. 

11 (B) EXCLUSIONS.—Such term shall not in12 clude any person who operates an email service 

13 if such service is wholly owned, controlled, and 

14 operated by a person that— 

15 (i) for the most recent 6-month pe16 riod, did not employ more than 500 em17 ployees; and 

18 (ii) for the most recent 12-month pe19 riod, averaged less than $5,000,000,000 in 

20 annual gross receipts. 

21 (3) POLITICAL CAMPAIGN.—The term ‘‘political 

22 campaign’’ includes— 

23 (A) an individual who is a candidate (as 

24 such term is defined in section 301(2) of the 


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1 Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (52 

2 U.S.C. 30101(2))); 

3 (B) an authorized committee (as such term 

4 is defined in section 301(6) of such Act); 

5 (C) a connected organization (as such term 

6 is defined in section 301(7) of such Act); 

7 (D) a national committee (as such term is 

8 defined in section 301(14) of such Act); 

9 (E) a State committee (as such term is de10 fined in section 301(15) of such Act); and 

11 (F) a joint fundraising committee that in12 cludes any entity described in subparagraphs 

13 (A) through (E). 

Æ 


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