I 

117TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 6796 

To provide for the establishment of the Bureau of Digital Services Oversight 

and Safety within the Federal Trade Commission, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 18, 2022 

Mrs. TRAHAN (for herself, Mr. SCHIFF, and Mr. CASTEN) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committees on Education and Labor, and 

the Judiciary, 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 provide for the establishment of the Bureau of Digital 

Services Oversight and Safety within the Federal Trade 

Commission, 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; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

4 (a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 

5 ‘‘Digital Services Oversight and Safety Act of 2022’’. 

6 (b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 

7 this Act is as follows: 

Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 


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Sec. 2. Definitions. 

Sec. 3. Bureau of Digital Services Oversight and Safety. 

Sec. 4. Studies and investigations. 

Sec. 5. Internal complaint-handling systems. 

Sec. 6. Transparency regarding content moderation and related matters. 

Sec. 7. Risk assessment and risk mitigation reporting. 

Sec. 8. Guidance on best practices. 

Sec. 9. Recommender systems. 

Sec. 10. Independent research facilitation. 

Sec. 11. Research fellowship program. 

Sec. 12. Report and disclosure integrity. 

Sec. 13. Enforcement by Federal Trade Commission. 

Sec. 14. Authorization of appropriations. 

Sec. 15. Rule of construction. 

1 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 

2 In this Act: 

3 (1) ADVERTISEMENT.—The term ‘‘advertise4 ment’’ means information that is— 

5 (A) designed to promote the message of a 

6 person, irrespective of whether to achieve com7 mercial or non-commercial purposes; and 

8 (B) displayed by a provider of a covered 

9 platform on the online interface of the platform 

10 for remuneration specifically for promoting such 

11 information. 

12 (2) ADVERTISER.—The term ‘‘advertiser’’ 

13 means a person who purchases advertising services. 

14 (3) ADVERTISING SERVICES.—The term ‘‘adver15 tising services’’ means tools, services, and interfaces 

16 provided by a provider of a covered platform to place 

17 advertisements. 

18 (4) BIOMETRIC INFORMATION.— 


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1 (A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘‘biometric 

2 information’’ means any personal information 

3 generated from the measurement or specific 

4 technological processing of an individual’s 

5 unique biological, physical, or physiological 

6 characteristics. 

7 (B) INCLUSIONS.—The term ‘‘biometric in8 formation’’ includes measurements of finger9 prints, voice prints, iris scans, facial character10 istics, identifying DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) 

11 information, or other unique biological charac12 teristics, including any mathematical code or al13 gorithmic model generated or extracted from 

14 measurements of such characteristics. 

15 (C) EXCLUSIONS.—The term ‘‘biometric 

16 information’’ does not include writing samples, 

17 written signatures, photographs, demographic 

18 data, or physical descriptions such as height, 

19 weight, hair color, or eye color. 

20 (5) BUREAU.—The term ‘‘Bureau’’ means the 

21 Bureau of Digital Services Oversight and Safety es22 tablished under section 3(a). 

23 (6) CERTIFIED RESEARCHER.—The term ‘‘cer24 tified researcher’’ means an individual certified 

25 under section 10(b). 


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1 (7) COMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’ 

2 means the Federal Trade Commission. 

3 (8) COMMUNITY STANDARDS.—The term ‘‘com4 munity standards’’ means a policy adopted by a pro5 vider of a hosting service that specifies, at a min6 imum, the user behavior and activities that are per7 mitted on the service and the user behavior and ac8 tivities that may subject a user or an item of content 

9 to a content moderation action. 

10 (9) CONSTITUTIONAL LAWYER.—The term 

11 ‘‘constitutional lawyer’’ means a lawyer with exper12 tise regarding the interpretation, implementation, 

13 and amendment of, and how to protect rights guar14 anteed by, the Constitution of the United States and 

15 State constitutions. 

16 (10) CONTENT MODERATION.—The term ‘‘con17 tent moderation’’ means the activities undertaken by 

18 a provider of a hosting service aimed at detecting, 

19 identifying, and addressing content provided by 

20 users of such service that is illegal content or con21 tent that is incompatible with the terms and condi22 tions or community standards of such provider, in23 cluding measures taken that affect— 

24 (A) the availability, visibility, and accessi25 bility of such content, such as demotion of, disVerDate Sep 11 2014 20:39 Feb 28, 2022 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6796.IH H6796

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1 abling of access to, or removal of such content; 

2 or 

3 (B) the users’ ability to provide such con4 tent, such as the termination or suspension of 

5 a user’s account. 

6 (11) COVERED PLATFORM.— 

7 (A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘‘covered 

8 platform’’ means a hosting service— 

9 (i) that disseminates to the public in10 formation; and 

11 (ii) to which a designation by the 

12 Commission under subparagraph (B) ap13 plies. 

14 (B) DESIGNATION.— 

15 (i) IN GENERAL.—The Commission 

16 shall verify, at least every 2 years, whether 

17 the number of average monthly active 

18 users in the United States of each hosting 

19 service provided by a provider described in 

20 paragraph (22) is equal to or greater than 

21 the number described in subparagraph 

22 (D). On the basis of the verification, the 

23 Commission shall adopt a decision desig24 nating the service as a covered platform 

25 for the purposes of this Act (if the number 


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1 of average monthly active users of the 

2 service in the United States is equal to or 

3 greater than the number described in sub4 paragraph (D)), or terminating such des5 ignation (if the number of average monthly 

6 active users of the service in the United 

7 States is less than the number described in 

8 subparagraph (D) and a previous designa9 tion under this subparagraph applies to 

10 the service), and communicate such deci11 sion, without undue delay, to the provider. 

12 (ii) APPLICABILITY.—A designation 

13 under this subparagraph shall apply, or 

14 cease to apply, beginning on the date that 

15 is 4 months after the publication of the 

16 designation on, or the removal of the des17 ignation from, the list under subparagraph 

18 (C). 

19 (C) PUBLICATION OF LIST OF DESIGNATED

20 COVERED PLATFORMS.—The Commission shall 

21 ensure that the list of covered platforms des22 ignated under subparagraph (B) is published on 

23 the website of the Commission and keep such 

24 list updated. 


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1 (D) NUMBER OF AVERAGE MONTHLY AC2 TIVE USERS DESCRIBED.—The number of aver3 age monthly active users described in this sub4 paragraph is 10,000,000. 

5 (E) ADJUSTMENT.—When the population 

6 of the United States increases or decreases 

7 since the last adjustment under this subpara8 graph (or, before the first adjustment under 

9 this subparagraph is made, since the date of 

10 the enactment of this Act) by 5 percent or 

11 more, the Commission shall adjust the number 

12 described in subparagraph (D) so that such 

13 number is equal to 3 percent of the United 

14 States population at the time of the adjust15 ment, rounded up or down to the nearest mil16 lion. 

17 (F) METHODOLOGY.—Not later than 6 

18 months after the date of the enactment of this 

19 Act, the Commission shall issue regulations 

20 under section 553 of title 5, United States 

21 Code, to create a methodology for calculating 

22 the number of average monthly active users of 

23 a hosting service in the United States for pur24 poses of this paragraph and paragraph (18). 

25 The methodology shall specify, in particular, 


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1 how to determine the United States population 

2 and criteria to determine the number of average 

3 monthly active users of a hosting service in the 

4 United States, taking into account different ac5 cessibility features and business relationships. 

6 (G) EXCEPTION.—The term ‘‘covered plat7 form’’ does not include a hosting service with 

8 respect to which the dissemination to the public 

9 of information is merely a minor and purely an10 cillary feature of another service, if such feature 

11 cannot, for objective technical reasons, be used 

12 without such other, principal service, and the 

13 integration of such feature is not a means to 

14 circumvent the applicability of this Act and the 

15 regulations issued under this Act. Such an an16 cillary feature may include a feature such as 

17 the comments section in an online newspaper, 

18 where it is clear that it is ancillary to the main 

19 service represented by the publication of news 

20 under the editorial responsibility of the pub21 lisher. 

22 (12) DEIDENTIFY.—The term ‘‘deidentify’’ 

23 means, with respect to information, to take an ac24 tion so that the information cannot reasonably be 

25 used to infer information about, or otherwise be 


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1 linked to, an individual, a household, or a device 

2 used by an individual or a household. 

3 (13) DISSEMINATE TO THE PUBLIC.—The term 

4 ‘‘disseminate to the public’’ means, with respect to 

5 information provided by a user of a covered plat6 form, to make the information available, at the re7 quest of the user, to a potentially unlimited number 

8 of third parties. 

9 (14) HOSTING SERVICE.—The term ‘‘hosting 

10 service’’ means an interactive computer service 

11 that— 

12 (A) stores information provided by, and at 

13 the request of, a user of the service; and 

14 (B) at any point during the preceding 2 

15 calendar years, was owned or controlled by an 

16 entity with net annual sales or a market cap17 italization greater than $2,500,000, adjusted 

18 annually for inflation on the basis of the Con19 sumer Price Index. 

20 (15) ILLEGAL CONTENT.—The term ‘‘illegal 

21 content’’ means any information, which, in itself or 

22 by its reference to an activity, including the sale of 

23 products or provision of services, is not in compli24 ance with Federal law. 


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1 (16) INFLUENCER MARKETING.—The term 

2 ‘‘influencer marketing’’ means a practice by which a 

3 company compensates an individual who is consid4 ered by the company to have the potential to review, 

5 promote, or sell a product or service online to an in6 tended target audience. 

7 (17) INTERACTIVE COMPUTER SERVICE.—The 

8 term ‘‘interactive computer service’’ has the meaning 

9 given such term in section 230(f) of the Communica10 tions Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 230(f)). 

11 (18) LARGE COVERED PLATFORM.— 

12 (A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘‘large cov13 ered platform’’ means a hosting service— 

14 (i) that disseminates to the public in15 formation; and 

16 (ii) to which a designation by the 

17 Commission under subparagraph (B) ap18 plies. 

19 (B) DESIGNATION.— 

20 (i) IN GENERAL.—The Commission 

21 shall verify, at least every 2 years, whether 

22 the number of average monthly active 

23 users in the United States of each hosting 

24 service provided by a provider described in 

25 paragraph (22) is equal to or greater than 


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1 the number described in subparagraph 

2 (D). On the basis of the verification, the 

3 Commission shall adopt a decision desig4 nating the service as a large covered plat5 form for the purposes of this Act (if the 

6 number of average monthly active users of 

7 the service in the United States is equal to 

8 or greater than the number described in 

9 subparagraph (D)), or terminating such 

10 designation (if the number of average 

11 monthly active users of the service in the 

12 United States is less than the number de13 scribed in subparagraph (D) and a pre14 vious designation under this subparagraph 

15 applies to the service), and communicate 

16 such decision, without undue delay, to the 

17 provider. 

18 (ii) APPLICABILITY.—A designation 

19 under this subparagraph shall apply, or 

20 cease to apply, beginning on the date that 

21 is 4 months after the publication of the 

22 designation on, or the removal of the des23 ignation from, the list under subparagraph 

24 (C). 


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1 (C) PUBLICATION OF LIST OF DESIGNATED

2 LARGE COVERED PLATFORMS.—The Commis3 sion shall ensure that the list of large covered 

4 platforms designated under subparagraph (B) 

5 is published on the website of the Commission 

6 and keep such list updated. 

7 (D) NUMBER OF AVERAGE MONTHLY AC8 TIVE USERS DESCRIBED.—The number of aver9 age monthly active users described in this sub10 paragraph is 66,000,000. 

11 (E) ADJUSTMENT.—When the population 

12 of the United States increases or decreases 

13 since the last adjustment under this subpara14 graph (or, before the first adjustment under 

15 this subparagraph is made, since the date of 

16 the enactment of this Act) by 5 percent or 

17 more, the Commission shall adjust the number 

18 described in subparagraph (D) so that such 

19 number is equal to 20 percent of the United 

20 States population at the time of the adjust21 ment, rounded up or down to the nearest mil22 lion. 

23 (F) EXCEPTION.—The term ‘‘large covered 

24 platform’’ does not include a hosting service 

25 with respect to which the dissemination to the 


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1 public of information is merely a minor and 

2 purely ancillary feature of another service, if 

3 such feature cannot, for objective technical rea4 sons, be used without such other, principal serv5 ice, and the integration of such feature is not 

6 a means to circumvent the applicability of this 

7 Act and the regulations issued under this Act. 

8 Such an ancillary feature may include a feature 

9 such as the comments section in an online 

10 newspaper, where it is clear that it is ancillary 

11 to the main service represented by the publica12 tion of news under the editorial responsibility of 

13 the publisher. 

14 (19) OFFICE.—The term ‘‘Office’’ means the 

15 Office of Independent Research Facilitation estab16 lished under section 10(a). 

17 (20) PERSONAL HEALTH INFORMATION.—The 

18 term ‘‘personal health information’’ includes per19 sonal information that— 

20 (A) relates to the physical or mental health 

21 or condition of an individual or the provision of 

22 health care to an individual; 

23 (B) is processed for the purpose or in the 

24 course of providing health or wellness services; 

25 or 


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1 (C) is derived from the testing or examina2 tion of a body part or bodily substance, includ3 ing from genetic data and biological samples. 

4 (21) PRECISE GEOSPATIAL INFORMATION.— 

5 (A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘‘precise 

6 geospatial information’’ means information de7 rived from a consumer device through any tech8 nology that is capable of determining with spec9 ificity the spatial location of a person or device, 

10 such as latitude-longitude coordinates with an 

11 accuracy level of below 1,750 feet provided by 

12 GPS, triangulated location provided by network 

13 radios or beacons such as Wi-Fi, or other tech14 nologies and inferences. 

15 (B) EXCLUSION.—The term ‘‘precise 

16 geospatial information’’ does not include infor17 mation that is or will be altered prior to subse18 quent processing such that the physical location 

19 of an individual or device cannot be determined 

20 with specificity. 

21 (22) PROVIDER.—The term ‘‘provider’’ means, 

22 with respect to a hosting service, covered platform, 

23 or large covered platform, a person, partnership, or 

24 corporation over which the Commission has author25 ity pursuant to section 6(a) of the Federal Trade 


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1 Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 46(a)) that provides 

2 such service or platform. 

3 (23) PUBLIC CONTENT.—The term ‘‘public con4 tent’’ means information on a covered platform that 

5 is available to a potentially unlimited number of 

6 third parties. Such term does not exclude informa7 tion merely because an individual must log into an 

8 account in order to see the information. 

9 (24) RECOGNIZED PLACE.—The term ‘‘recog10 nized place’’ means any of the following: 

11 (A) Each of the 50 States, the District of 

12 Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, 

13 Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of 

14 the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Virgin 

15 Islands of the United States. 

16 (B) Each noncontiguous area of Indian 

17 country (as defined in section 1151 of title 18, 

18 United States Code). 

19 (C) A county, municipality, city, town, 

20 township, village, borough, or similar unit of 

21 general government that is— 

22 (i) incorporated pursuant to a State 

23 law; or 


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1 (ii) an incorporated place (as such 

2 term is defined in the most recent glossary 

3 of the Bureau of the Census). 

4 (D) A census designated place (as such 

5 term is defined in the most recent glossary of 

6 the Bureau of the Census). 

7 (E) A congressional district. 

8 (F) A country. 

9 (25) RECOMMENDER SYSTEM.—The term ‘‘rec10 ommender system’’ means a fully or partially auto11 mated system used on a covered platform to suggest 

12 in the online interface of the platform specific infor13 mation to users of the platform, including as a re14 sult of a search initiated by a user or otherwise de15 termining the relative order or prominence of infor16 mation displayed. 

17 (26) SOCIOTECHNICAL EXPERT.—The term 

18 ‘‘sociotechnical expert’’ means an information 

19 science researcher, privacy or human rights advo20 cate, international data governance expert, sociolo21 gist, psychologist, ethicist, language scholar, statisti22 cian, user interface designer, child development 

23 scholar, or an individual with expertise in another 

24 related field or application. 


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1 (27) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means each 

2 State of the United States, the District of Columbia, 

3 each commonwealth, territory, or possession of the 

4 United States, and each federally recognized Indian 

5 Tribe. 

6 (28) TECHNOLOGIST.—The term ‘‘technologist’’ 

7 means an individual with training and expertise re8 garding the state of the art in information tech9 nology, information security, network security, soft10 ware development, computer science, computer engi11 neering, or another related field or application. 

12 (29) TERMS AND CONDITIONS.—The term 

13 ‘‘terms and conditions’’ means all terms and condi14 tions or specifications, irrespective of their name or 

15 form, which govern the contractual relationship be16 tween the provider of a hosting service and users of 

17 the service. 

18 SEC. 3. BUREAU OF DIGITAL SERVICES OVERSIGHT AND 

19 SAFETY. 

20 (a) ESTABLISHMENT.—Not later than 6 months after 

21 the date of the enactment of this Act, the Commission 

22 shall establish an administrative unit in the Commission 

23 to be known as the ‘‘Bureau of Digital Services Oversight 

24 and Safety’’, which shall carry out such duties of the ComVerDate Sep 11 2014 20:39 Feb 28, 2022 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00017 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6796.IH H6796

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1 mission under this Act, and such other duties relating to 

2 hosting services, as the Commission considers appropriate. 

3 (b) APPOINTMENTS.— 

4 (1) DIRECTOR.—The Bureau shall be headed 

5 by a Director, who shall be appointed by the Com6 mission. 

7 (2) PERSONNEL.— 

8 (A) IN GENERAL.—The Director of the 

9 Bureau shall, without regard to the civil service 

10 laws (including regulations), establish at least 

11 500 positions in the Bureau and appoint cer12 tified professionals to such positions to carry 

13 out the duties of the Bureau. The Director may 

14 fix the rate of basic pay for such positions at 

15 any rate up to the annual rate of basic pay for 

16 Level I of the Executive Schedule under section 

17 5312 of title 5, United States Code. 

18 (B) TECHNOLOGISTS.—In appointing cer19 tified professionals under subparagraph (A), the 

20 Director shall appoint at least 80 technologists. 

21 (C) SOCIOTECHNICAL EXPERTS.—In ap22 pointing certified professionals under subpara23 graph (A), the Director shall appoint at least 

24 80 sociotechnical experts. 


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1 (D) CONSTITUTIONAL LAWYERS.—In ap2 pointing certified professionals under subpara3 graph (A), the Director shall appoint at least 

4 15 constitutional lawyers. 

5 SEC. 4. STUDIES AND INVESTIGATIONS. 

6 (a) SENSE OF CONGRESS REGARDING USE OF SEC7 TION 6(b) AUTHORITY.—It is the sense of Congress that 

8 the Commission should do the following: 

9 (1) Use the authority of the Commission under 

10 section 6(b) of the Federal Trade Commission Act 

11 (15 U.S.C. 46(b)), on an ongoing basis, to conduct 

12 investigative studies of providers of hosting services. 

13 (2) Provide the Bureau with adequate authority 

14 and resources to conduct such investigative studies. 

15 (3) Conduct such investigative studies to gain a 

16 better understanding of the following systemic risks: 

17 (A) The dissemination of illegal content or 

18 illegal goods, or the facilitation of illegal activ19 ity, through a hosting service. 

20 (B) Discrimination against individuals 

21 based on race, color, religion or creed, national 

22 origin or ancestry, sex (including gender, preg23 nancy status, sexual orientation, or gender 

24 identity), age, physical or mental disability, vet25 eran status, genetic information, or citizenship 


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1 by, or resulting from the activities of, a pro2 vider of a hosting service. 

3 (C) Any malfunctioning or intentional ma4 nipulation of a hosting service, including by 

5 means of inauthentic use or coordinated, auto6 mated, or other exploitation of the service or 

7 risks inherent to the intended operation of the 

8 service, including the amplification of illegal 

9 content, and of content that is in breach of the 

10 community standards of the provider of the 

11 service and has an actual or foreseeable nega12 tive effect on the protection of public health, 

13 minors, civic discourse, electoral processes, pub14 lic security, or the safety of vulnerable and 

15 marginalized communities. 

16 (b) WHISTLEBLOWER PROTECTIONS.— 

17 (1) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 

18 (A) COVERED PERSON.—The term ‘‘cov19 ered person’’ means a person who is— 

20 (i) a provider of a hosting service; 

21 (ii) an officer, employee, contractor, 

22 subcontractor, or agent of a provider of a 

23 hosting service; or 


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1 (iii) an officer, employee, or agent of 

2 a contractor or subcontractor of a provider 

3 of a hosting service. 

4 (B) PROTECTED INDIVIDUAL.—The term 

5 ‘‘protected individual’’ means an individual who 

6 is— 

7 (i) an officer, employee, contractor, 

8 subcontractor, or agent of a provider of a 

9 hosting service; 

10 (ii) an officer, employee, or agent of a 

11 contractor or subcontractor of a provider 

12 of a hosting service; or 

13 (iii) a certified researcher. 

14 (2) WHISTLEBLOWER PROTECTION.— 

15 (A) IN GENERAL.—A covered person may 

16 not discharge, demote, suspend, threaten, har17 ass, or in any other manner discriminate 

18 against (in the terms and conditions of employ19 ment or otherwise) a protected individual if 

20 such discrimination is due, in whole or in part, 

21 to the protected individual’s lawful, good faith 

22 act done, or perceived by the covered person to 

23 have been done or about to be done, because 

24 the protected individual— 


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1 (i) provides information, causes infor2 mation to be provided, or otherwise assists 

3 in an investigation regarding any conduct 

4 which the protected individual reasonably 

5 believes constitutes a violation of this Act 

6 or the regulations issued by the Commis7 sion under this Act when the information 

8 or assistance is provided to or the inves9 tigation is conducted by— 

10 (I) a Federal regulatory or law 

11 enforcement agency; 

12 (II) any Member of Congress or 

13 any committee of Congress; or 

14 (III) in the case of a protected 

15 individual who is an employee of a 

16 provider of a hosting service or of a 

17 contractor or subcontractor of such a 

18 provider, a person with supervisory 

19 authority over the employee (or such 

20 other person working for the provider, 

21 contractor, or subcontractor who has 

22 the authority to investigate, discover, 

23 or terminate misconduct); or 

24 (ii) files, causes to be filed, testifies 

25 in, participates in, or otherwise assists in 


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1 a proceeding filed or about to be filed re2 lating to an alleged violation of this Act or 

3 the regulations issued by the Commission 

4 under this Act. 

5 (B) PROHIBITION ON SERVICE DISCRIMI6 NATION.—In addition to the discrimination pro7 hibited by subparagraph (A), a provider of a 

8 hosting service may not condition, degrade, or 

9 otherwise discriminate in the provision of a 

10 service or product to a protected individual be11 cause the protected individual engaged in any 

12 action described in clause (i) or (ii) of such sub13 paragraph. 

14 (3) ENFORCEMENT ACTION.— 

15 (A) IN GENERAL.—A protected individual 

16 who alleges discharge or other discrimination by 

17 any covered person in violation of paragraph 

18 (2) may seek relief under paragraph (4) by— 

19 (i) filing a complaint with the Sec20 retary of Labor; or 

21 (ii) if the Secretary has not issued a 

22 final decision within 180 days after the fil23 ing of the complaint under clause (i) and 

24 there is no showing that such delay is due 

25 to the bad faith of the protected individual, 


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1 bringing an action at law or equity for de 

2 novo review in the appropriate district 

3 court of the United States, which shall 

4 have jurisdiction over such an action with5 out regard to the amount in controversy. 

6 (B) PROCEDURE.— 

7 (i) IN GENERAL.—Any proceeding 

8 with respect to a complaint under subpara9 graph (A)(i) shall be governed under the 

10 rules and procedures set forth in section 

11 42121(b) of title 49, United States Code. 

12 (ii) EXCEPTION.—Notification made 

13 under section 42121(b)(1) of title 49, 

14 United States Code, shall be made to the 

15 covered person named in the complaint 

16 and, in the case of a complaint filed by a 

17 protected individual who is an employee of 

18 a provider of a hosting service or of a con19 tractor or subcontractor of such a provider, 

20 to the provider, contractor, or subcon21 tractor. 

22 (iii) BURDENS OF PROOF.—An action 

23 brought under subparagraph (A)(ii) shall 

24 be governed by the legal burdens of proof 


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1 set forth in section 42121(b) of title 49, 

2 United States Code. 

3 (iv) STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS.—A 

4 complaint under subparagraph (A)(i) shall 

5 be filed not later than 180 days after the 

6 later of— 

7 (I) the date on which the viola8 tion occurs; or 

9 (II) the date on which the pro10 tected individual becomes aware of the 

11 violation. 

12 (v) JURY TRIAL.—A party to an ac13 tion brought under subparagraph (A)(ii) 

14 shall be entitled to trial by jury. 

15 (4) RELIEF.— 

16 (A) IN GENERAL.—A protected individual 

17 prevailing in any proceeding or action under 

18 paragraph (3)(A) shall be entitled to all relief 

19 necessary to make the protected individual 

20 whole, including compensation for any special 

21 damages sustained as a result of the discrimi22 nation, including litigation costs, expert witness 

23 fees, and reasonable attorney fees. 

24 (B) FOR EMPLOYEES.—In the case of a 

25 protected individual who is an employee of a 


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1 provider of a hosting service or of a contractor 

2 or subcontractor of such a provider, if the em3 ployee prevails in any proceeding or action 

4 under paragraph (3)(A) against the provider, 

5 contractor, or subcontractor, relief under sub6 paragraph (A) of this paragraph may include— 

7 (i) reinstatement with the same se8 niority status that the employee would 

9 have had, but for the discrimination; and 

10 (ii) the amount of back pay, with in11 terest. 

12 (5) RIGHTS RETAINED BY PROTECTED INDI13 VIDUAL.—Nothing in this subsection shall be con14 strued to diminish the rights, privileges, or remedies 

15 of any protected individual under any Federal or 

16 State law, or under any collective bargaining agree17 ment. 

18 (6) NONENFORCEABILITY OF CERTAIN PROVI19 SIONS WAIVING RIGHTS AND REMEDIES OR REQUIR20 ING ARBITRATION OF DISPUTES.— 

21 (A) WAIVER OF RIGHTS AND REMEDIES.— 

22 The rights and remedies provided for in this 

23 subsection may not be waived, including by a 

24 predispute arbitration agreement. 


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1 (B) PREDISPUTE ARBITRATION AGREE2 MENTS.—No predispute arbitration agreement 

3 shall be valid or enforceable, if the agreement 

4 requires arbitration of a dispute arising under 

5 this subsection. 

6 (7) NO CONDITIONAL SERVICE.—A provider of 

7 a hosting service may not condition, degrade, or oth8 erwise discriminate in the provision of a service or 

9 product to a protected individual based on the pro10 tected individual’s waiver of or refusal to waive any 

11 right or remedy provided for in this subsection. 

12 (8) PROHIBITION ON DISCLOSURE OF IDENTITY

13 OF PROTECTED INDIVIDUAL.— 

14 (A) BY FEDERAL AGENCIES.—Except with 

15 the written consent of the protected individual, 

16 an agency (as defined in section 552(f) of title 

17 5, United States Code) may not disclose any in18 formation that may be used to identify a pro19 tected individual who has provided information 

20 about an alleged violation of this Act or the 

21 regulations issued by the Commission under 

22 this Act, except in accordance with the provi23 sions of section 552a of title 5, United States 

24 Code, unless and until required to be disclosed 

25 to a defendant or respondent in connection with 


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1 a public proceeding instituted by the agency. 

2 Any information that may be used to identify a 

3 protected individual shall be exempt from dis4 closure under section 552(b)(3)(B) of title 5, 

5 United States Code. 

6 (B) BY COVERED PERSONS.—Except with 

7 the written consent of the protected individual, 

8 a covered person may not disclose any informa9 tion that may be used to identify a protected in10 dividual who has provided information about an 

11 alleged violation of this Act or the regulations 

12 issued by the Commission under this Act, un13 less and until required to be disclosed by law 

14 (including pursuant to an order issued by a 

15 court of competent jurisdiction). 

16 (c) INTERAGENCY REPORTS.— 

17 (1) IN GENERAL.—Upon request by an agency 

18 described in paragraph (2), the Commission may, at 

19 the discretion of the Commission— 

20 (A) investigate conduct by a provider of a 

21 hosting service that may be unlawful under a 

22 provision of law enforced by or a regulation 

23 issued by such agency; and 

24 (B) issue a report to such agency on the 

25 results of the investigation. 


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1 (2) AGENCIES DESCRIBED.—The agencies de2 scribed in this paragraph are the following: 

3 (A) The Department of Education. 

4 (B) The Department of Labor. 

5 (C) The Department of Housing and 

6 Urban Development. 

7 (D) The Department of Commerce. 

8 (E) The Department of Health and 

9 Human Services. 

10 (F) The Department of Veterans Affairs. 

11 (G) The Equal Employment Opportunity 

12 Commission. 

13 (H) The Bureau of Consumer Financial 

14 Protection. 

15 (I) The Federal Communications Commis16 sion. 

17 (J) The Federal Election Commission. 

18 (K) The Department of State. 

19 (3) PUBLIC AVAILABILITY OF REPORTS.—A re20 port issued by the Commission under paragraph (1) 

21 shall be made publicly available by the Commission 

22 consistent with section 552 of title 5, United States 

23 Code (commonly known as the ‘‘Freedom of Infor24 mation Act’’). 


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1 SEC. 5. INTERNAL COMPLAINT-HANDLING SYSTEMS. 

2 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 

3 date of the enactment of this Act, the Commission shall 

4 issue regulations under section 553 of title 5, United 

5 States Code, that require a provider of a covered platform 

6 to provide a user of the platform, for a period of at least 

7 6 months after a content moderation action described in 

8 subsection (b) with respect to information provided by the 

9 user, with access to an internal complaint-handling system 

10 that allows the user to appeal the content moderation ac11 tion. 

12 (b) COVERED CONTENT MODERATION ACTIONS.— 

13 The content moderation actions described in this sub14 section are the following: 

15 (1) A decision to remove or disable access to 

16 the information. 

17 (2) A decision to suspend or terminate the pro18 vision of the service, in whole or in part, to the user. 

19 (3) A decision to suspend or terminate the 

20 user’s account. 

21 (c) REQUIREMENTS.—In issuing regulations under 

22 subsection (a), the Commission shall require a provider 

23 of a covered platform to do the following: 

24 (1) To ensure that the internal complaint-han25 dling system is easy to access (including for individ26 uals with disabilities), is user-friendly, and enables 


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1 and facilitates the submission of sufficiently precise 

2 and adequately substantiated complaints. 

3 (2) To ensure that the internal complaint-han4 dling system is available in each language in which 

5 the covered platform operates. 

6 (3) To handle complaints submitted through 

7 the internal complaint-handling system in a timely, 

8 diligent, and objective manner. 

9 (4) To inform a complainant without undue 

10 delay of the decision the provider has taken regard11 ing the complaint and the reasoning for the decision. 

12 (5) To ensure that a decision regarding a com13 plaint is not taken solely on the basis of automated 

14 means, subject to exceptions specified by the Com15 mission for circumstances such as frivolous com16 plaints submitted by automated means, repetitive 

17 complaints, or coordinated abuse of the complaint18 handling system. 

19 (d) EXCEPTIONS.—In issuing regulations under sub20 section (a), the Commission shall consider exceptions to 

21 when a provider of a covered platform is required to re22 spond to a complaint submitted through the internal com23 plaint-handling system, such as if providing a response 

24 would risk imminent harm to any person or impede law 

25 enforcement activities. 


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1 (e) VARIATION BASED ON SIZE AND SCOPE.—In 

2 issuing regulations under subsection (a), the Commission 

3 shall vary the requirements based on the size and scope 

4 of a covered platform, including by having different re5 quirements for different services such as social media serv6 ices, online marketplaces, augmented reality and virtual 

7 reality services, and digital advertising placement services. 

8 SEC. 6. TRANSPARENCY REGARDING CONTENT MODERA9 TION AND RELATED MATTERS. 

10 (a) COMMUNITY STANDARDS.— 

11 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after 

12 the date of the enactment of this Act, the Commis13 sion shall issue regulations under section 553 of title 

14 5, United States Code, that require a provider of a 

15 hosting service to include in the community stand16 ards of the provider the following information: 

17 (A) Information on any restrictions that 

18 the provider imposes with respect to informa19 tion provided by users of the service, including 

20 information on any policies, procedures, meas21 ures, or tools used for the purpose of content 

22 moderation, including algorithmic decision mak23 ing and human review. 

24 (B) Historical versions of the community 

25 standards and change logs. 


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1 (C) Anything else determined to be nec2 essary by the Commission. 

3 (2) FORMAT.—The information required by 

4 paragraph (1) shall be provided in clear and unam5 biguous language and shall be publicly available in 

6 an electronic format in which pieces of information 

7 are identified using an interactive data standard, 

8 such as eXtensible Markup Language (XML), that 

9 is a standardized list of electronic tags that mark 

10 the information required by paragraph (1) within 

11 the community standards of a provider of a hosting 

12 service. 

13 (b) TRANSPARENCY REPORTS.— 

14 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after 

15 the date of the enactment of this Act, the Commis16 sion shall issue regulations under section 553 of title 

17 5, United States Code, that require a provider of a 

18 hosting service to issue publicly available trans19 parency reports relating to content moderation by 

20 the provider with respect to the service. 

21 (2) INFORMATION TO BE INCLUDED.—The reg22 ulations issued under paragraph (1) shall require the 

23 transparency reports to include information (both 

24 quantitative and qualitative) on the following, as ap25 plicable: 


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1 (A) A description of the content modera2 tion practices of the provider, including statis3 tics regarding the amount and type of content 

4 moderation actions taken that affect the avail5 ability, visibility, and accessibility of informa6 tion provided by users and the ability of users 

7 to provide information, categorized by the type 

8 of action and reason for taking the action. 

9 (B) Statistics regarding the method of de10 tection of information with respect to which a 

11 content moderation enforcement action was 

12 taken, such as employees or contractors of the 

13 provider, artificial intelligence software, trusted 

14 organizations, users, or shared databases. 

15 (C) Statistics regarding the number of le16 gally enforceable government requirements, 

17 non-legally enforceable government referrals 

18 (specifying the portion that came from internet 

19 referral units alleging violations of the commu20 nity standards of the providers), and requests 

21 from other entities or private third parties, to— 

22 (i) provide content or personal infor23 mation of users; or 

24 (ii) restrict access to or block content. 


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1 (D) Statistics regarding the number of 

2 complaints received through the internal com3 plaint-handling system required by section 5, 

4 the basis for such complaints, decisions taken 

5 with respect to such complaints, the time need6 ed for taking such decisions, and the number of 

7 instances in which such decisions were reversed. 

8 (E) Statistics regarding user exposure to 

9 illegal content or content that violates the com10 munity standards of the provider, including the 

11 type of content the user was exposed to, where 

12 and how the content was surfaced to the user 

13 (including whether the content was promoted 

14 through a creator or account the user follows 

15 and whether the content was algorithmically 

16 recommended or otherwise amplified by the 

17 service) and whether the content was public 

18 content. 

19 (F) Aggregate reporting on the language 

20 fluency of the employees, contractors, and sub21 contractors of the provider involved in content 

22 moderation, broken down by type of employ23 ment and regional assignment. 

24 (G) Significant changes during the period 

25 covered by the report from the previous report 


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1 under this subsection issued by the provider 

2 with respect to the service. 

3 (H) Any other information the Commission 

4 considers appropriate. 

5 (3) CONSIDERATIONS.—In issuing regulations 

6 under paragraph (1), the Commission shall ensure 

7 that the reporting requirements— 

8 (A) take into consideration the rights and 

9 interests of providers and users of hosting serv10 ices, including the protection of personal infor11 mation, the protection of confidential informa12 tion, and maintaining the security of such serv13 ices; 

14 (B) specify how providers of hosting serv15 ices should count and communicate their meth16 ods for counting content moderation actions, in17 cluding in the case that content spans multiple 

18 reasons for removal or repeated notifications re19 lated to the same user or content; 

20 (C) specify when and how posts moderated 

21 by volunteer moderators in a hosted community 

22 should be reported; 

23 (D) take into consideration relevant stand24 ards issued by international standards-setting 

25 organizations; and 


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1 (E) require the reports to be machine-read2 able and formatted to allow access by users 

3 with disabilities. 

4 (4) FREQUENCY.—In issuing regulations under 

5 paragraph (1), the Commission shall specify the fre6 quency with which a provider of a hosting service is 

7 required to issue the transparency reports required 

8 by such regulations and may vary such frequency 

9 under subsection (e) based on the size and scope of 

10 the service or the provider. The Commission shall re11 quire such reports to be issued at least annually for 

12 hosting services and at least quarterly for large cov13 ered platforms. 

14 (c) LEVEL OF DETAIL OF REQUIRED DISCLO15 SURES.—In issuing regulations under this section, the 

16 Commission shall consider the level of detail needed to in17 form users of hosting services while not impeding the abil18 ity of hosting services to mitigate systemic risks, including 

19 the systemic risks described in section 4(a)(3). 

20 (d) LANGUAGE OF REQUIRED DISCLOSURES.—In 

21 issuing regulations under this section, the Commission 

22 shall require a provider of a hosting service to make avail23 able the information required to be included in the com24 munity standards of the provider under subsection (a) and 


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1 the transparency reports issued under subsection (b) in 

2 each language in which the hosting service operates. 

3 (e) VARIATION BASED ON SIZE AND SCOPE.—In 

4 issuing regulations under this section, the Commission 

5 shall vary the requirements based on the size and scope 

6 of the hosting service, including by having different re7 quirements for different services such as social media serv8 ices, online marketplaces, augmented reality and virtual 

9 reality services, digital advertising placement services, and 

10 cloud and web hosting services. 

11 (f) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec12 tion may be construed to require a provider of a hosting 

13 service to collect personal information that the provider 

14 would not otherwise collect. 

15 SEC. 7. RISK ASSESSMENT AND RISK MITIGATION REPORT16 ING. 

17 (a) RISK ASSESSMENT AND RISK MITIGATION RE18 PORTS FOR LARGE COVERED PLATFORMS.— 

19 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 18 months 

20 after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 

21 Commission shall issue regulations under section 

22 553 of title 5, United States Code, that require a 

23 provider of a large covered platform to— 

24 (A) conduct risk assessments with respect 

25 to the platform; and 


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1 (B) based on the risk assessments con2 ducted under subparagraph (A), submit to the 

3 Commission risk assessment and risk mitigation 

4 reports with respect to the platform. 

5 (2) RISK ASSESSMENT.— 

6 (A) IDENTIFICATION, ANALYSIS, AND AS7 SESSMENT OF SYSTEMIC RISKS.—The regula8 tions issued under paragraph (1) shall require 

9 a provider of a large covered platform, in con10 ducting a risk assessment and preparing a re11 port required by such regulations, to identify, 

12 analyze, and assess, in a manner specific to the 

13 large covered platform, any significant systemic 

14 risks arising from the functioning and use of 

15 the platform, including the systemic risks de16 scribed in section 4(a)(3). 

17 (B) INFLUENCE OF CONTENT MODERA18 TION AND OTHER SYSTEMS.—The regulations 

19 issued under paragraph (1) shall require a pro20 vider of a large covered platform, in conducting 

21 a risk assessment and preparing a report re22 quired by such regulations, to take into account 

23 how its content moderation systems, terms and 

24 conditions, community standards, algorithmic 

25 systems, recommender systems, and systems for 


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1 selecting and displaying advertisements, as well 

2 as the underlying data collection, processing, 

3 and profiling, influence any of the systemic 

4 risks identified under subparagraph (A), includ5 ing the potentially rapid and wide dissemination 

6 of illegal content and of information that is in7 compatible with its community standards. 

8 (3) RISK MITIGATION DOCUMENTATION.—The 

9 regulations issued under paragraph (1) shall require 

10 a provider of a large covered platform, in preparing 

11 a report required by such regulations, to document 

12 with particularity the measures used to mitigate any 

13 systemic risk identified by the provider under para14 graph (2)(A). Such measures may include, where ap15 plicable, the following: 

16 (A) Integrating threat modeling and red17 teaming processes to guard against systemic 

18 risks identified under paragraph (2)(A) in the 

19 early stages of product design, and to test po20 tential mitigations prior to the release of a 

21 product. 

22 (B) Adapting the content moderation or 

23 recommender systems (including policies and 

24 enforcement) of the provider, the decision-mak25 ing processes of the provider, the features or 


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1 functioning of the platform, or the terms and 

2 conditions or community standards of the pro3 vider. 

4 (C) Targeted measures aimed at limiting 

5 the display of advertisements in association 

6 with the platform or the alternative placement 

7 and display of public service advertisements or 

8 other related factual (as determined by the pro9 vider) information. 

10 (D) Reinforcing the internal processes or 

11 supervision of any of the activities of the pro12 vider, particularly regarding the detection of 

13 systemic risks identified under paragraph 

14 (2)(A). 

15 (E) User-friendly notification and action 

16 mechanisms that allow any person to notify the 

17 provider of the presence on the platform of any 

18 content the person believes to be— 

19 (i) illegal content; or 

20 (ii) in violation of the terms and con21 ditions or community standards of the pro22 vider. 

23 (F) Crisis protocols, including a descrip24 tion of what constitutes the specific extraor25 dinary circumstance the crisis protocol seeks to 


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1 address and the objectives the crisis protocol 

2 pursues. 

3 (G) Testing for effectiveness and discrimi4 natory bias within any algorithms used in the 

5 content moderation process. 

6 (H) Hiring and training of human content 

7 moderators, trust and safety personnel, engi8 neers focused on detecting and reducing sys9 temic risks identified under paragraph (2)(A), 

10 and others with appropriate subject-matter ex11 pertise and cultural competence. 

12 (I) Protections for the health and well13 being of human content moderators. 

14 (J) Deliberative approaches to platform 

15 governance, including creating citizen panels, 

16 assemblies, or independent oversight bodies, or 

17 using crowdsourcing mechanisms, to make or 

18 inform content moderation decisions or policies. 

19 (K) Age-appropriate design that adjusts 

20 features on the platform based on what is in 

21 the best interest of children and adolescents, 

22 given variations in brain development. 

23 (L) Other risk-mitigation techniques con24 sidered relevant by the Commission. 


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1 (4) VARIATION BASED ON SIZE AND SCOPE.— 

2 In issuing regulations under paragraph (1), the 

3 Commission shall vary the requirements based on 

4 the size and scope of a large covered platform, in5 cluding by having different requirements for dif6 ferent services such as social media services, online 

7 marketplaces, augmented reality and virtual reality 

8 services, and digital advertising placement services. 

9 (5) FREQUENCY.—In issuing regulations under 

10 paragraph (1), the Commission shall specify the fre11 quency with which a provider of a large covered plat12 form is required to conduct the risk assessments and 

13 submit to the Commission the reports required by 

14 such regulations and may vary such frequency under 

15 paragraph (4) based on the size and scope of the 

16 platform or the provider. The Commission shall re17 quire such risk assessments to be conducted and 

18 such reports to be submitted at least annually. 

19 (6) FOIA EXEMPTION.—The reports required 

20 by the regulations issued under paragraph (1) shall 

21 be exempt from disclosure under section 

22 552(b)(3)(B) of title 5, United States Code. 

23 (b) ANNUAL REPORTS BY COMMISSION ON SYSTEMIC

24 RISKS POSED BY LARGE COVERED PLATFORMS.—The 

25 Commission shall publish an annual report on systemic 


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1 risks posed by large covered platforms that includes the 

2 following: 

3 (1) Identification and assessment of the most 

4 prominent and recurrent systemic risks posed by 

5 large covered platforms, based on the reports sub6 mitted by providers of such platforms under sub7 section (a), information obtained by the Commission 

8 under section 6(b) of the Federal Trade Commission 

9 Act (15 U.S.C. 46(b)), or other information avail10 able to the Commission. 

11 (2) Assessment of the effectiveness of providers 

12 of large covered platforms at reducing systemic 

13 risks, including successful approaches that have 

14 worked across platforms. 

15 (c) INDEPENDENT AUDITS FOR LARGE COVERED

16 PLATFORMS.— 

17 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after 

18 the date of the enactment of this Act, the Commis19 sion shall issue regulations under section 553 of title 

20 5, United States Code, that require a provider of a 

21 large covered platform to obtain an annual audit of 

22 the risk assessment and risk mitigation measures 

23 documented by the provider in the most recent re24 port submitted under subsection (a) with respect to 

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1 parency report submitted under section 6(b) with re2 spect to the platform, and the compliance by the 

3 provider with respect to the platform with the regu4 lations issued under section 10, by an organization 

5 that— 

6 (A) is independent from the provider; 

7 (B) has proven expertise in the area of risk 

8 management; 

9 (C) has the technical competence and tech10 nical capabilities necessary to perform the 

11 audit; 

12 (D) has proven objectivity and professional 

13 ethics, based on adherence to codes of practice 

14 or other appropriate standards; and 

15 (E) meets any other requirements consid16 ered necessary by the Commission. 

17 (2) REPORT.—The regulations issued under 

18 paragraph (1) shall require an organization that per19 forms an audit under such paragraph to prepare a 

20 written report on the audit, which shall include the 

21 following: 

22 (A) The name, address, and point of con23 tact of the provider of the large covered plat24 form. 


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1 (B) The name, address, and point of con2 tact of the organization performing the audit. 

3 (C) The period covered by the audit. 

4 (D) A description of the specific elements 

5 audited, and the methodology applied. 

6 (E) A description of the main findings 

7 drawn from the audit. 

8 (F) An audit opinion on whether the pro9 vider of the platform accurately, fully, and 

10 meaningfully described all of the systemic risks 

11 known to the provider which were required to 

12 be included in the report submitted under sub13 section (a) to which the audit relates. 

14 (G) An audit opinion on the adequacy of 

15 the processes and procedures of the provider of 

16 the platform for identifying, assessing, and re17 porting systemic risks as required under sub18 section (a). 

19 (H) An audit opinion on whether the pro20 vider implemented the risk mitigation measures 

21 documented in the report submitted under sub22 section (a) to which the audit relates. 

23 (I) An audit opinion on the accuracy of 

24 and thoroughness of the transparency report 


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1 submitted under section 6(b) to which the audit 

2 relates. 

3 (J) An audit opinion on the compliance by 

4 the provider with respect to the platform with 

5 the regulations issued under section 10. 

6 (K) Recommendations for changes the pro7 vider could make to better address systemic 

8 risks. 

9 (L) Any additional information considered 

10 necessary by the Commission. 

11 (3) SUBMISSION OF REPORT.—The regulations 

12 issued under paragraph (1) shall require a provider 

13 of a large covered platform to submit to the Com14 mission the report prepared under paragraph (2). 

15 (4) INFORMATION TO BE DISCLOSED TO AUDIT

16 ORGANIZATION.—The regulations issued under para17 graph (1) shall— 

18 (A) specify what information a provider of 

19 a large covered platform and the contractors of 

20 the provider are required to disclose to an orga21 nization performing an audit under such para22 graph; and 

23 (B) require the organization to comply 

24 with privacy measures similar to those for cer25 tified researchers under section 10 and any 


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1 other measures determined appropriate by the 

2 Commission to protect the privacy of users of 

3 large covered platforms and employees and con4 tractors of providers of large covered platforms. 

5 SEC. 8. GUIDANCE ON BEST PRACTICES. 

6 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Commission shall, on an on7 going basis, issue a series of evidence-based nonbinding 

8 guidance on best practices for providers of large covered 

9 platforms to address the systemic risks described in sec10 tion 4(a)(3). The guidance shall focus on product design 

11 features and content moderation processes that aim to be 

12 content neutral. 

13 (b) REGISTRY.—The Commission shall maintain, and 

14 make publicly available on the website of the Commission, 

15 a registry of all large covered platforms with a list of the 

16 guidance issued under this section that each platform fol17 lows, according to the independent audits conducted under 

18 section 7(c) or other information provided to the Commis19 sion under this Act. 

20 (c) ADVISORY COMMITTEES.—The Commission may 

21 create advisory committees (as defined in section 3 of the 

22 Federal Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App.)) to so23 licit views regarding the guidance under this section from 

24 stakeholders, including communities most impacted by the 

25 systemic risks described in section 4(a)(3) and content 


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1 moderators and employees (current or former) at covered 

2 platforms focused on mitigating such risks. 

3 SEC. 9. RECOMMENDER SYSTEMS. 

4 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 2 years after the 

5 date of the enactment of this Act, the Commission shall 

6 issue regulations under section 553 of title 5, United 

7 States Code, that require a provider of a large covered 

8 platform that uses a recommender system to do the fol9 lowing: 

10 (1) To specify in the terms and conditions of 

11 the provider, in a clear, accessible, and easily com12 prehensible manner— 

13 (A) the most salient features, inputs, or 

14 parameters used by the recommender system; 

15 (B) how any personal information used by 

16 the recommender system is collected or inferred 

17 about a user of the platform, and the categories 

18 of such information (including demographic, be19 havioral, and any other categories defined by 

20 the Commission); and 

21 (C) any options that the provider makes 

22 available for a user of the platform to modify 

23 the profile of the user or to influence the fea24 tures, inputs, or parameters used by the rec25 ommender system. 


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1 (2) To provide an option that does not rely on 

2 any of the user’s personal information (either col3 lected or inferred) to determine the order of infor4 mation presented to the user. The Commission may 

5 determine reasonable exceptions to ensure product 

6 functionality, such as the user’s language preference 

7 or recognized place. Such option shall be set as a de8 fault or presented prominently within the main 

9 interface containing the results of the recommender 

10 system. The provider shall present the options in 

11 good faith, and avoid misleading or harassing con12 sumers into making different choices, failing to 

13 maintain parity of unrelated features, or other meas14 ures as determined by the Commission. 

15 (b) OPT-IN FOR CERTAIN PERSONAL INFORMA16 TION.—In issuing regulations under subsection (a), the 

17 Commission may determine that certain personal informa18 tion may not be used to customize a recommender system 

19 without specific opt-in consent from users. In the case of 

20 such a determination, a provider of a large covered plat21 form shall independently obtain opt-in consent for sepa22 rate categories of personal information (as categorized and 

23 according to standards set by the Commission) rather 

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1 formation or multiple categories of personal information 

2 simultaneously. 

3 (c) CONSIDERATIONS FOR RULEMAKING.—In issuing 

4 regulations under subsection (a), the Commission shall 

5 consider— 

6 (1) the ways recommender systems may be used 

7 to help providers of large covered platforms mitigate 

8 systemic risks described in section 4(a)(3); 

9 (2) the frequency with which recommendation 

10 algorithms are trained; and 

11 (3) the technical feasibility of disabling or modi12 fying use of features, inputs, or parameters for each 

13 user. 

14 (d) VARIATION BASED ON SIZE AND SCOPE OF PLAT15 FORM AND TYPE OF RECOMMENDER SYSTEM.—In issuing 

16 regulations under subsection (a), the Commission shall 

17 vary the requirements based on the size and scope of the 

18 large covered platform, including by having different re19 quirements and for different types of recommender sys20 tems. 

21 SEC. 10. INDEPENDENT RESEARCH FACILITATION. 

22 (a) OFFICE OF INDEPENDENT RESEARCH FACILITA23 TION.—In establishing the Bureau under section 3(a), the 

24 Commission shall establish within the Bureau an office to 

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1 tion’’, which shall carry out such duties of the Commission 

2 under this section, and such other duties relating to facili3 tation of independent research on covered platforms, as 

4 the Commission considers appropriate. 

5 (b) RESEARCHER CERTIFICATION PROCESS.— 

6 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 18 months 

7 after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 

8 Commission shall issue regulations under section 

9 553 of title 5, United States Code, to establish a 

10 process by which— 

11 (A) an organization may, upon application 

12 to the Commission, be qualified as a host orga13 nization; and 

14 (B) an individual who is affiliated with a 

15 host organization may, upon application to the 

16 Commission, be certified in order to obtain ac17 cess to information under this section for the 

18 purposes described in paragraph (2). 

19 (2) PURPOSES OF ACCESS TO INFORMATION.— 

20 The purposes described in this paragraph are to 

21 gain understanding and measure the impacts of the 

22 content moderation, product design decisions, and 

23 algorithms of covered platforms on society, politics, 

24 the spread of hate, harassment, and extremism, se25 curity, privacy, and physical and mental health. 


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1 (3) REQUIREMENTS AND COMMITMENTS TO BE

2 QUALIFIED AS HOST ORGANIZATION.— 

3 (A) IN GENERAL.—In order to be qualified 

4 as a host organization under paragraph (1)(A), 

5 an organization shall— 

6 (i) meet the requirements described in 

7 subparagraph (B); and 

8 (ii) make the commitments described 

9 in subparagraph (C). 

10 (B) REQUIREMENTS.—The requirements 

11 described in this subparagraph for an organiza12 tion are the following: 

13 (i) The organization— 

14 (I) is described in section 

15 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue 

16 Code of 1986 and is exempt from tax17 ation under section 501(a) of such 

18 Code; or 

19 (II) is an institution of higher 

20 education (as defined in section 

21 101(a) of the Higher Education Act 

22 of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001(a))). 

23 (ii) The mission of the organization 

24 includes developing a deeper understanding 


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1 of the impacts of covered platforms de2 scribed in paragraph (2). 

3 (iii) The organization has the capacity 

4 to— 

5 (I) comply with the rules issued 

6 under subsection (c) relating to infor7 mation security; and 

8 (II) analyze information to which 

9 access is provided under this section 

10 using data science and best practices 

11 for investigative and qualitative re12 search. 

13 (iv) Any additional requirements es14 tablished by the Commission in the regula15 tions issued under paragraph (1). 

16 (C) COMMITMENTS.—The commitments 

17 described in this subparagraph for an organiza18 tion are the following: 

19 (i) To provide training to certified re20 searchers affiliated with the organization 

21 to ensure that the researchers abide by the 

22 commitments described in paragraph 

23 (4)(C). 

24 (ii) With respect to a project or study 

25 being carried out by a certified researcher 


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1 affiliated with the organization using infor2 mation to which access is obtained under 

3 this section, to conduct a review of the 

4 project or study to ensure that— 

5 (I) the project or study is con6 sistent with the purposes of access de7 scribed in paragraph (2); and 

8 (II) the researcher has sought 

9 the approval of an institutional review 

10 board for the project or study, if ap11 plicable. 

12 (iii) Any additional commitments es13 tablished by the Commission in the regula14 tions issued under paragraph (1). 

15 (4) REQUIREMENTS AND COMMITMENTS TO BE

16 CERTIFIED AS A CERTIFIED RESEARCHER.— 

17 (A) IN GENERAL.—In order to be certified 

18 as a certified researcher under paragraph 

19 (1)(B), an individual shall— 

20 (i) meet the requirements described in 

21 subparagraph (B); and 

22 (ii) make the commitments described 

23 in subparagraph (C). 


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1 (B) REQUIREMENTS.—The requirements 

2 described in this subparagraph for an individual 

3 are the following: 

4 (i) The individual is affiliated with an 

5 organization that is qualified as a host or6 ganization under this subsection. 

7 (ii) The individual is not under review 

8 by the host organization for research mis9 conduct. 

10 (iii) Any additional requirements es11 tablished by the Commission in the regula12 tions issued under paragraph (1). 

13 (C) COMMITMENTS.—The commitments 

14 described in this subparagraph for an individual 

15 are the following: 

16 (i) To have the capacity to comply 

17 with, and to comply with, any information 

18 security or confidentiality requirements the 

19 Commission considers appropriate with re20 spect to information accessed under this 

21 section. 

22 (ii) Not to reidentify, or to attempt to 

23 reidentify, the individual to whom informa24 tion accessed under this section relates. 


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1 (iii) Not to publish personal informa2 tion derived from information accessed 

3 under this section. 

4 (iv) To comply with applicable Fed5 eral, State, and local information sharing 

6 and privacy laws and regulations. 

7 (v) To complete Responsible Conduct 

8 of Research training provided by the Office 

9 of Research Integrity of the Department of 

10 Health and Human Services. 

11 (vi) To disseminate the results of the 

12 research conducted using information 

13 accessed under this section to the public. 

14 (vii) To comply with limits on com15 mercial use of information accessed under 

16 this section or research conducted using 

17 such information, as specified by the Com18 mission in regulations issued under this 

19 section. 

20 (viii) To seek a certificate of confiden21 tiality issued by the Secretary of Health 

22 and Human Services under section 301(d) 

23 of the Public Health Service Act (42 

24 U.S.C. 241(d)), if applicable. 


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1 (ix) Any additional commitments es2 tablished by the Commission in the regula3 tions issued under paragraph (1). 

4 (5) REQUALIFICATION AND RECERTIFICATION

5 REQUIRED.— 

6 (A) REQUALIFICATION.—In issuing regula7 tions under paragraph (1), the Commission 

8 shall provide for the qualification of an organi9 zation as a host organization to expire at the 

10 end of a 3-year period and for the organization, 

11 upon application to the Commission, to be 

12 qualified as a host organization for a 3-year pe13 riod in addition to the initial or any subsequent 

14 such period, if the organization— 

15 (i) continues to meet the requirements 

16 described in paragraph (3)(B); 

17 (ii) abided by the commitments de18 scribed in paragraph (3)(C) that the orga19 nization made with respect to the previous 

20 such period; and 

21 (iii) makes the commitments described 

22 in paragraph (3)(C) for the next such pe23 riod. 

24 (B) RECERTIFICATION.—In issuing regula25 tions under paragraph (1), the Commission 


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1 shall provide for the certification of an indi2 vidual as a certified researcher to expire at the 

3 end of a 1-year period and for the individual, 

4 upon application to the Commission, to be cer5 tified as a certified researcher for a 1-year pe6 riod in addition to the initial or any subsequent 

7 such period, if the individual— 

8 (i) continues to meet the requirements 

9 described in paragraph (4)(B); 

10 (ii) abided by the commitments de11 scribed in paragraph (4)(C) that the indi12 vidual made with respect to the previous 

13 such period; and 

14 (iii) makes the commitments described 

15 in paragraph (4)(C) for the next such pe16 riod. 

17 (6) REVOCATION OF QUALIFICATION OR CER18 TIFICATION.— 

19 (A) QUALIFICATION.—In issuing regula20 tions under paragraph (1), the Commission 

21 shall provide for the revocation of the qualifica22 tion of an organization as a host organization 

23 if the Commission determines that the organi24 zation— 


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1 (i) no longer meets the requirements 

2 described in paragraph (3)(B); or 

3 (ii) is not abiding by the commitments 

4 described in paragraph (3)(C) that the or5 ganization made with respect to the appli6 cable qualification period. 

7 (B) CERTIFICATION.—In issuing regula8 tions under paragraph (1), the Commission 

9 shall provide for the revocation of the certifi10 cation of an individual as a certified researcher 

11 if the Commission determines that the indi12 vidual— 

13 (i) no longer meets the requirements 

14 described in paragraph (4)(B); or 

15 (ii) is not abiding by the commitments 

16 described in paragraph (4)(C) that the in17 dividual made with respect to the applica18 ble certification period. 

19 (7) NONDISCRIMINATION.—No person on 

20 grounds of race, color, age, sex, national origin, po21 litical affiliation, or disability shall be excluded from 

22 participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be sub23 jected to discrimination under the researcher certifi24 cation process established under this subsection. 


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1 (8) CONSULTATION.—In issuing regulations 

2 under paragraph (1), the Commission shall consult 

3 with the Director of the National Science Founda4 tion, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, 

5 and the Federal Statistical Research Data Centers 

6 of the Bureau of the Census. 

7 (9) GAO AUDIT AND REPORT.— 

8 (A) AUDIT.—Not later than 3 years after 

9 the date on which the Commission issues the 

10 regulations required by paragraph (1), the 

11 Comptroller General of the United States shall 

12 complete an audit of the process established by 

13 such regulations. 

14 (B) REPORT.— 

15 (i) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 90 

16 days after the date on which the audit re17 quired by subparagraph (A) is completed, 

18 the Comptroller General— 

19 (I) shall submit to Congress a re20 port on the audit; and 

21 (II) shall make the report re22 quired by subclause (I) available to 

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1 atives, the majority and minority lead2 ers of the Senate, the Chairman and 

3 Ranking Member of the committee 

4 and each subcommittee of jurisdiction 

5 in the House of Representatives and 

6 the Senate, and any other Member of 

7 Congress who requests the report. 

8 (ii) CONTENTS.—The report required 

9 by clause (i)(I) shall include— 

10 (I) an assessment of the process, 

11 including whether the Office is effec12 tively balancing information security 

13 with the need for rigorous inde14 pendent research, done in a timely 

15 manner, for the purposes described in 

16 paragraph (2); 

17 (II) any signs of discrimination 

18 in the process of certifying research19 ers; and 

20 (III) recommendations for im21 provements to the process. 

22 (c) SECURE RESEARCH ACCESS.— 

23 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 2 years after 

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1 sion shall issue regulations under section 553 of title 

2 5, United States Code, to specify— 

3 (A) the types of information that should be 

4 made available to certified researchers by pro5 viders of covered platforms; 

6 (B) the manner in which such information 

7 is accessed; and 

8 (C) under what circumstances the provi9 sion of access to such information to certified 

10 researchers by providers of covered platforms is 

11 required or optional. 

12 (2) TIERED ACCESS.—In issuing the regula13 tions required by paragraph (1), the Commission 

14 shall create a system of tiered access in which infor15 mation about users of covered platforms that the 

16 Commission considers more sensitive has more safe17 guards in place and is accessed by fewer certified re18 searchers than information that the Commission 

19 considers less sensitive. 

20 (3) TYPES OF INFORMATION TO BE CONSID21 ERED.—The types of information to be considered 

22 by the Commission in issuing the regulations re23 quired by paragraph (1) shall include the following: 

24 (A) Information related to how covered 

25 platforms conduct internal studies, including 


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1 the metrics used to evaluate the platform’s suc2 cess and quality of content. 

3 (B) Information related to content modera4 tion decisions (including choices related to the 

5 ranking, ordering, promotion, or recommenda6 tion of content and requests for removal of con7 tent), the setting of policies for content modera8 tion, and the demographics of individuals set9 ting such policies. 

10 (C) The demographics, cultural com11 petency, and content category-specific expertise 

12 of individuals setting content moderation poli13 cies and making content moderation decisions. 

14 (D) Requests to a provider of a covered 

15 platform from a third party to act on a user, 

16 account, or content (such as user-flagged con17 tent, content removal requests, account suspen18 sion requests, and network shutdowns). 

19 (E) Information related to engagement 

20 (such as sharing and likes) with content (such 

21 as news articles and video clips), including the 

22 demographic breakdown of users that interact 

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1 ment (such as organic search or recommenda2 tion). 

3 (F) Information related to exposure (such 

4 as viewership or impressions) to content (such 

5 as news articles and video clips), including the 

6 demographic breakdown of users that interact 

7 with content (to the extent such breakdown is 

8 known or inferred) and the source of exposure 

9 (such as organic search or recommendation). 

10 (G) Classification of information sources, 

11 such as opinion, sports, entertainment, and pol12 itics. 

13 (H) Archives of removed content. 

14 (I) Archives of accounts that have been re15 moved by a provider of a covered platform, in16 cluding— 

17 (i) any special treatment of accounts 

18 that previously belonged to high-profile in19 dividuals; 

20 (ii) archives of fake or bot accounts 

21 that have been removed; and 

22 (iii) archives of coordinated influence 

23 operation accounts that have been re24 moved. 


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1 (J) Advertisements and influencer mar2 keting content, in addition to the information 

3 described in subsection (f). 

4 (K) Materials used to train content mod5 erators. 

6 (L) Detailed information related to the al7 gorithms of a covered platform, including fea8 ture importance, optimization objectives (such 

9 as predictions of user behavior or engagement), 

10 descriptions of datasets used in model develop11 ment including its composition, collection proc12 ess, and any preprocessing (including cleaning 

13 or labeling) done on the data. 

14 (M) Any other information the Commission 

15 considers necessary. 

16 (4) CONSIDERATIONS RELATING TO MANNER OF

17 ACCESS.—In issuing the regulations required by 

18 paragraph (1), the Commission shall consider the 

19 following: 

20 (A) Size and sampling techniques used to 

21 create the data sets containing the information 

22 described in paragraph (3) to which access is 

23 provided under this subsection. 


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1 (B) Limits on time and amount of infor2 mation stored, broken down by the type of in3 formation. 

4 (C) Under what circumstances privacy pre5 serving techniques such as differential privacy 

6 and statistical noise should be used. 

7 (D) Information security standards, such 

8 as those included in the National Institute of 

9 Standards and Technology portfolio. 

10 (E) When aggregation of demographic in11 formation is required and the required level of 

12 aggregation. 

13 (F) When standardized variable names 

14 should be used across covered platforms and for 

15 what types of information. 

16 (G) Under what circumstances secure ap17 plication computer interfaces are required and 

18 the specific level of security. 

19 (H) Designation of secure facilities and 

20 computers to analyze information through a 

21 Federally Funded Research and Development 

22 Center described in paragraph (7) or as other23 wise determined by the Commission. 

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1 searchers based on the nature of the study or 

2 when to require preliminary results prior to 

3 more restricted access. 

4 (J) The technical feasibility for a provider 

5 of a covered platform to provide access to infor6 mation. 

7 (5) CONSIDERATION OF WHEN COMMISSION RE8 VIEW PRIOR TO PUBLICATION IS REQUIRED.—In 

9 issuing the regulations required by paragraph (1), 

10 the Commission shall consider under what cir11 cumstances the Commission will review a publication 

12 based on information accessed under this section 

13 prior to publication to determine whether the publi14 cation violates the privacy of a user of the covered 

15 platform or would reveal trade secrets of the pro16 vider of the covered platform. 

17 (6) USER PRIVACY.— 

18 (A) PROTECTION OF REASONABLE EXPEC19 TATIONS OF PERSONAL PRIVACY.— 

20 (i) IN GENERAL.—In issuing the regu21 lations required by paragraph (1), the 

22 Commission shall ensure that the provision 

23 of access to information under this section 

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1 ered platforms or of other individuals, in2 cluding by requiring a provider of a cov3 ered platform— 

4 (I) to deidentify any information 

5 described in clause (ii) before pro6 viding certified researchers with ac7 cess to such information; and 

8 (II) in the case of location infor9 mation to which certified researchers 

10 are provided access, to ensure that 

11 such access— 

12 (aa) is provided at a level 

13 that is not more specific than a 

14 recognized place; and 

15 (bb) does not include access 

16 to precise geospatial information. 

17 (ii) INFORMATION DESCRIBED.—The 

18 information described in this clause is the 

19 following: 

20 (I) Information that is not (or 

21 was not before removal from the cov22 ered platform) public content. 

23 (II) Personal health information. 

24 (III) Biometric information. 


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1 (IV) Information relating to an 

2 individual under 13 years of age. 

3 (B) NOTICE TO PLATFORM USERS.—In 

4 issuing the regulations required by paragraph 

5 (1), the Commission shall require a provider of 

6 a covered platform, through the posting of no7 tices or other appropriate means, to keep users 

8 informed of the types of information to which 

9 the provider is required or permitted to provide 

10 access to certified researchers under this section 

11 and the privacy protections applicable to such 

12 access. 

13 (C) USER OPT-OUT.—In issuing the regu14 lations required by paragraph (1), the Commis15 sion shall require a provider of a covered plat16 form to make available to a user whose profile 

17 does not host public content an opportunity to 

18 opt out of having access to the information of 

19 such user provided to a certified researcher 

20 under this section. 

21 (D) PROHIBITION AGAINST COMPELLED

22 DISCLOSURE TO GOVERNMENTAL ENTITIES.—A 

23 certified researcher, or an organization that is 

24 qualified as a host organization under this sec25 tion, may not be required (by a subpoena, court 


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1 order, or otherwise) to divulge to a govern2 mental entity (as defined in section 2711 of 

3 title 18, United States Code) any information 

4 obtained from a provider of a covered platform 

5 under this section. 

6 (E) RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER LAW.—Sec7 tion 2702(b) of title 18, United States Code, is 

8 amended— 

9 (i) in paragraph (8), by striking ‘‘; 

10 or’’ and inserting a semicolon; 

11 (ii) in paragraph (9), by striking the 

12 period at the end and inserting ‘‘; or’’; and 

13 (iii) by adding at the end the fol14 lowing: 

15 ‘‘(10) to a certified researcher under section 10 

16 of the Digital Services Oversight and Safety Act of 

17 2022 in accordance with such section and the regu18 lations issued by the Federal Trade Commission 

19 under such section.’’. 

20 (7) FEDERALLY FUNDED RESEARCH AND DE21 VELOPMENT CENTER.— 

22 (A) IN GENERAL.—The Commission may 

23 sponsor a Federally Funded Research and De24 velopment Center as described in section 35.017 

25 of title 48, Code of Federal Regulations (or any 


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1 successor regulation), to facilitate information 

2 sharing between covered platforms and certified 

3 researchers. 

4 (B) CONSORTIUM REQUIRED.—A Federally 

5 Funded Research and Development Center 

6 sponsored by the Commission under subpara7 graph (A) shall be comprised of at least 3 orga8 nizations that are qualified as host organiza9 tions under subsection (b). 

10 (C) MISSION.—The mission of a Federally 

11 Funded Research and Development Center 

12 sponsored by the Commission under subpara13 graph (A) may include the following: 

14 (i) Enabling certified researchers to 

15 perform studies requiring information from 

16 multiple covered platforms. 

17 (ii) Serving as a means to provide cer18 tified researchers access to information as 

19 described in paragraph (4)(H). 

20 (iii) Upon request of the Director of 

21 the Bureau, supporting and assisting in 

22 the development of guidance under section 

23 8. 


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1 (iv) Collaborating with international 

2 research organizations with a similar mis3 sion. 

4 (8) VARIATION BASED ON SIZE AND SCOPE.— 

5 In issuing the regulations required by paragraph (1), 

6 the Commission shall vary the specifications based 

7 on the size and scope of a covered platform, includ8 ing by having different specifications for different 

9 services such as social media services, online market10 places, augmented reality and virtual reality services, 

11 and digital advertising placement services. In the 

12 case of a large covered platform, the regulations 

13 issued under paragraph (1) shall apply in addition 

14 to the regulations issued under subsections (f) and 

15 (g), and the Commission shall also vary the require16 ments of the regulations issued under such sub17 sections based on the size and scope of a large cov18 ered platform. 

19 (9) SAFE HARBOR FOR PROVIDERS.—If a pro20 vider of a covered platform provides a certified re21 searcher with access to information in accordance 

22 with the regulations required by paragraph (1) (re23 gardless of whether such access is optional or re24 quired), the Commission may not bring an enforce25 ment action against the provider based solely on the 


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1 act of disclosing such information to the certified re2 searcher. 

3 (10) SAFE HARBOR FOR RESEARCHER AC4 COUNTS AND DATA DONATIONS.— 

5 (A) IMMUNITY FROM LIABILITY.—A cer6 tified researcher shall not be liable under any 

7 Federal, State, or local law, or for a violation 

8 of the terms and conditions of a covered plat9 form, for any of the following: 

10 (i) The creation and use of an account 

11 or accounts on a covered platform that are 

12 created for and used solely for a research 

13 project carried out for the purposes de14 scribed in subsection (b)(2), if— 

15 (I) the certified researcher takes 

16 reasonable measures to avoid mis17 leading users of the covered platform 

18 in the creation and use of the account 

19 or accounts; and 

20 (II) the creation and use of the 

21 account or accounts does not materi22 ally burden the technical operation of 

23 the covered platform. 

24 (ii) The collection of information pro25 vided for research purposes by a user of a 


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1 covered platform, including through a 

2 browser extension or plug-in, if the cer3 tified researcher obtains informed consent 

4 for such collection in accordance with sec5 tion 46.116 of title 45, Code of Federal 

6 Regulations (or any successor regulation). 

7 (B) PROHIBITION ON SERVICE DISCRIMI8 NATION.—A provider of a covered platform may 

9 not condition, degrade, or otherwise discrimi10 nate in the provision of a service or product to 

11 a certified researcher because the certified re12 searcher takes an action described in clause (i) 

13 or (ii) of subparagraph (A). 

14 (d) SUBMISSION OF DATA DICTIONARIES.—Not later 

15 than 18 months after the date of the enactment of this 

16 Act, the Commission shall issue regulations under section 

17 553 of title 5, United States Code, to— 

18 (1) require a provider of a covered platform, 

19 not later than 6 months after the date on which 

20 such regulations are issued, and every 12 months 

21 thereafter, to submit to the Commission a data dic22 tionary created by the provider during the period 

23 covered by the submission, which shall include a de24 scription of the information collected by the provider 

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1 cluding the meaning, relationship to other informa2 tion, origin, and format of the information; and 

3 (2) establish a process by which the Commis4 sion will consult a data dictionary submitted under 

5 paragraph (1) in offering advice to a certified re6 searcher under subsection (e)(1). 

7 (e) CONSULTATION.— 

8 (1) RESEARCHER CONSULTATION.—The Com9 mission shall offer a certified researcher attempting 

10 to formulate studies using information to which ac11 cess is provided under this section, or to negotiate 

12 a memorandum of understanding with a provider of 

13 a covered platform to conduct research, advice re14 lated to— 

15 (A) the types of information to which the 

16 researcher could obtain access; and 

17 (B) ways to protect the security of such in18 formation in accordance with this section and 

19 the regulations issued under this section. 

20 (2) COVERED PLATFORM CONSULTATION.—The 

21 Commission shall offer a provider of a covered plat22 form support and assistance in complying with this 

23 section and the regulations issued under this section 

24 in the provision of access to information to certified 

25 researchers, regardless of whether the provision of 


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1 such access is required or optional under this sec2 tion. 

3 (f) ADVERTISEMENT LIBRARIES.— 

4 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 18 months 

5 after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 

6 Commission shall issue regulations under section 

7 553 of title 5, United States Code, that require the 

8 following: 

9 (A) A provider of a large covered platform 

10 that sells advertising services to maintain and 

11 grant certified researchers and the Commission 

12 access to an advertisement library that contains 

13 in a searchable, machine-readable format the 

14 following information (which may be updated by 

15 the Commission as the Commission determines 

16 to be necessary) related to any advertiser that 

17 purchases $500 or more of advertising services 

18 from the provider in a calendar year: 

19 (i) The legal name and unique identi20 fication number for each advertiser. 

21 (ii) The full content contained within 

22 the advertisement, including machine-read23 able text and textual descriptions of any 

24 images. 


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1 (iii) The method used, as selected ei2 ther by the advertiser or by the provider, 

3 to target an advertisement to users of the 

4 large covered platform, including uploaded 

5 lists of users, pre-set categories of users, 

6 key words, and contextual information. 

7 (iv) The optimization objective chosen 

8 by the advertiser (such as awareness, 

9 reach, traffic, and engagement). 

10 (v) A description of the targeted audi11 ence for each advertisement, including in12 formation (that may have been collected 

13 from the profile of a user or based on an 

14 algorithm) on the demographics of the au15 dience (including age, gender, geographic 

16 location, race, ethnicity, language, and po17 litical affiliation), interests of the audience, 

18 and any other description of the targeted 

19 audience determined to be reasonable by 

20 the Commission. 

21 (vi) A description of the delivery audi22 ence of the advertisement determined by a 

23 count of users who viewed the advertise24 ment, including information (that may 

25 have been collected from the profile of a 


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1 user or based on an algorithm) on the de2 mographics of the audience (including age, 

3 gender, geographic location, race, ethnicity, 

4 language, and political affiliation), inter5 ests of the audience, and any other de6 scription of the delivery audience deter7 mined to be reasonable by the Commission. 

8 (vii) The number of times the adver9 tisement was viewed by users. 

10 (viii) Advertisement conversion (in11 cluding how often an advertisement was 

12 shared, liked, or clicked-through) and over 

13 what timeframe. 

14 (ix) The date and time that the adver15 tisement was first displayed and last dis16 played. 

17 (x) The amount the advertiser budg18 eted for advertising services with respect to 

19 the advertisement on the large covered 

20 platform and the amount paid for such ad21 vertising services. 

22 (xi) The category of the advertisement 

23 as defined by the provider (such as politics, 

24 employment opportunity, housing oppor25 tunity, or apparel). 


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1 (xii) Each language contained within 

2 the advertisement. 

3 (xiii) Any advertising services policy 

4 of the provider that is made available to 

5 advertisers. 

6 (xiv) Whether the advertisement was 

7 determined to violate any policy described 

8 in clause (xiii). 

9 (xv) Any other information the Com10 mission considers necessary. 

11 (B) The methodology used by the large 

12 covered platform to calculate the demographics 

13 of the targeted audience described in subpara14 graph (A)(v) to be the same as the methodology 

15 used to calculate the demographics of the deliv16 ery audience described in subparagraph (A)(vi). 

17 (C) In the case of advertisements that are 

18 deleted by an advertiser or blocked by the ad19 vertising services policy of a provider of a large 

20 covered platform, the provider to treat such ad21 vertisements (with respect to whether or how 

22 such advertisements are made available in the 

23 advertisement library) as specified in such regu24 lations. 


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1 (D) A provider of a large covered platform 

2 to make an advertisement available in the ad3 vertisement library within an amount of time 

4 specified in such regulations after the advertise5 ment is posted on the platform. 

6 (E) A provider of a large covered platform 

7 to make an advertisement available in the ad8 vertisement library for an amount of time speci9 fied in such regulations. 

10 (F) A provider of a large covered platform 

11 to ensure that the advertisement library cannot 

12 be used to identify an individual targeted by an 

13 advertisement. 

14 (2) NO ADDITIONAL INFORMATION COLLECTION

15 REQUIRED.—The regulations issued under para16 graph (1) shall specify that a provider of a large 

17 covered platform is not required to collect any infor18 mation for the advertisement library that the pro19 vider does not collect in the ordinary course of busi20 ness. 

21 (3) PUBLIC AVAILABILITY.—The regulations 

22 issued under paragraph (1) shall require a provider 

23 of a large covered platform to make available to the 

24 public a version of the advertisement library main25 tained under such regulations. Such regulations may 


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1 specify that such public version is not required to 

2 contain certain information required to be included 

3 in the version to which the Commission and certified 

4 researchers are granted access. 

5 (g) HIGH-REACH PUBLIC CONTENT STREAM.— 

6 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 18 months 

7 after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 

8 Commission shall issue regulations under section 

9 553 of title 5, United States Code, that require a 

10 provider of a large covered platform to maintain, 

11 and grant certified researchers and the Commission 

12 access to, a high-reach public content stream that 

13 contains in a searchable, machine-readable format 

14 the following information (which may be updated by 

15 the Commission as the Commission determines to be 

16 necessary): 

17 (A) The pieces of high-reach and high-en18 gagement public content, such as user-gen19 erated posts, texts, hyperlinks, images, and vid20 eos, made available on the large covered plat21 form. 

22 (B) The frequency with which such pieces 

23 of content are shared over a period of time 

24 within a recognized place. 


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1 (C) Engagement (such as sharing and 

2 likes) with such pieces of content, including the 

3 demographic breakdown of users that interact 

4 with the content (to the extent such breakdown 

5 is known or inferred). 

6 (D) Exposure (such as viewership or im7 pressions) to such pieces of content, including 

8 the demographic breakdown of users exposed to 

9 the content (to the extent such breakdown is 

10 known or inferred). 

11 (E) Public high-profile accounts involved in 

12 the spread of such pieces of content. 

13 (F) Any other information relating to such 

14 pieces of content that the Commission considers 

15 appropriate. 

16 (2) CONSIDERATIONS.—In issuing regulations 

17 under paragraph (1), the Commission shall consider 

18 the following: 

19 (A) What constitutes high-reach and high20 engagement public content for purposes of such 

21 regulations. 

22 (B) The time by which a piece of content 

23 is required to become available, and the period 

24 of time for which the piece of content is re25 quired to remain available, in the high-reach 


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1 public content stream, with the goal of pro2 viding a near real-time understanding of high3 reach and high-engagement public content on 

4 the platform. 

5 (C) What constitutes a public high-profile 

6 account, considering not only that the profile is 

7 set to public but that the number of followers 

8 is greater than 25,000 users. 

9 (D) Any other matters the Commission 

10 considers appropriate. 

11 (3) NO ADDITIONAL INFORMATION COLLECTION

12 REQUIRED.—The regulations issued under para13 graph (1) shall specify that a provider of a large 

14 covered platform is not required to collect any infor15 mation about users for the high-reach public content 

16 stream that the provider does not collect in the ordi17 nary course of business. 

18 (4) PUBLIC AVAILABILITY.—The regulations 

19 issued under paragraph (1) may require a provider 

20 of a large covered platform to make available to the 

21 public a version of the high-reach public content 

22 stream maintained under such regulations. Such 

23 regulations may specify that such public version is 

24 not required to contain certain information required 

25 to be included in the version to which the CommisVerDate Sep 11 2014 20:39 Feb 28, 2022 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00084 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6796.IH H6796

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1 sion and certified researchers are granted access be2 cause of national security or privacy concerns. 

3 SEC. 11. RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM. 

4 (a) ESTABLISHMENT.—Not later than 1 year after 

5 the date of the enactment of this Act, the Commission 

6 shall issue regulations under section 553 of title 5, United 

7 States Code, to establish within the Bureau a fellowship 

8 program (in this section referred to as the ‘‘program’’) 

9 in accordance with this section that offers individuals ap10 pointments as fellows to conduct— 

11 (1) research relating to understanding of and 

12 mitigating systemic risks described in section 

13 4(a)(3), with a focus on research that requires infor14 mation that is difficult or impossible for a certified 

15 researcher to obtain under section 10; and 

16 (2) research projects with a focus on domestic 

17 and global information ecosystem studies that re18 quire information from or about multiple hosting 

19 services and longer time horizons. 

20 (b) APPLICATIONS.—The Commission shall prescribe 

21 the process for an individual to apply for appointment as 

22 a fellow under the program. 

23 (c) ELIGIBILITY.— 


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1 (1) IN GENERAL.—To be eligible for appoint2 ment as a fellow under the program, an individual 

3 shall meet the following requirements: 

4 (A) The individual shall be a national of 

5 the United States or lawfully admitted to the 

6 United States for permanent residence. 

7 (B) The individual may not be a current 

8 Commission employee as of the time when the 

9 individual is appointed as a fellow. 

10 (C) The individual may not have a conflict 

11 of interest (as determined by the Commission). 

12 (2) NO CONSECUTIVE TERMS.—An individual 

13 may not serve consecutive terms as a fellow under 

14 the program. 

15 (d) NUMBER.—The Commission shall maintain at 

16 least 15 fellows under the program at any time. 

17 (e) TERM.—A fellow appointed under the program 

18 shall serve a term of not less than 1 year and not more 

19 than 3 years. 

20 (f) PAY.—The Commission shall establish annual 

21 rates of pay, benefits, and standards for fellows under the 

22 program. 

23 (g) FELLOWSHIP AGREEMENT.—The Commission 

24 and a fellow appointed under the program shall enter into 

25 a fellowship agreement, which shall state the amount of 


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1 compensation to be received by the fellow and the terms 

2 and conditions governing the fellowship. 

3 (h) COMPLIANCE WITH INFORMATION SECURITY

4 PRACTICES.—A fellow appointed under the program shall 

5 comply with information security practices established by 

6 the Commission. 

7 (i) ACCESS TO INFORMATION.—A fellow appointed 

8 under the program shall have access to— 

9 (1) the same information as a certified re10 searcher; and 

11 (2) information relating to hosting services and 

12 providers of hosting services obtained under section 

13 6(b) of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 

14 U.S.C. 46(b)). 

15 (j) PROHIBITION ON CARRYING OUT ENFORCEMENT

16 DUTIES.—A fellow appointed under the program may not 

17 perform work for purposes of an enforcement action by 

18 the Commission. 

19 (k) INAPPLICABILITY OF CERTAIN RULES.—Any rule 

20 of the Commission that restricts an individual formerly 

21 employed by the Commission from accepting other employ22 ment shall not apply to an individual by reason of the serv23 ice of the individual as a fellow under the program. 


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1 SEC. 12. REPORT AND DISCLOSURE INTEGRITY. 

2 In the case of any report or other disclosure required 

3 to be made by a provider of a hosting service under this 

4 Act, it shall be a violation of this Act for such report or 

5 other disclosure to include any untrue statement of a ma6 terial fact or to omit to state any material fact required 

7 to be stated therein or necessary to make the statements 

8 therein, in the light of the circumstances under which the 

9 report or other disclosure is made, not misleading. 

10 SEC. 13. ENFORCEMENT BY FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION. 

11 (a) UNFAIR OR DECEPTIVE ACTS OR PRACTICES.— 

12 A violation of this Act or a regulation issued under this 

13 Act shall be treated as a violation of a regulation under 

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

15 (15 U.S.C. 57a(a)(1)(B)) regarding unfair or deceptive 

16 acts or practices. 

17 (b) POWERS OF COMMISSION.—The Commission 

18 shall enforce this Act and the regulations issued under this 

19 Act in the same manner, by the same means, and with 

20 the same jurisdiction, powers, and duties as though all ap21 plicable terms and provisions of the Federal Trade Com22 mission Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.) were incorporated into 

23 and made a part of this Act, and any person who violates 

24 this Act or a regulation issued under this Act shall be sub25 ject to the penalties and entitled to the privileges and im26 munities provided in the Federal Trade Commission Act. 


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1 (c) COMMISSION LITIGATION AUTHORITY.—Section 

2 16(a)(2) of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 

3 56(a)(2)) is amended— 

4 (1) in subparagraph (D), by striking ‘‘or’’ after 

5 the semicolon; 

6 (2) in subparagraph (E)— 

7 (A) by moving the margins 2 ems to the 

8 left; and 

9 (B) by inserting ‘‘or’’ after the semicolon; 

10 and 

11 (3) by inserting after subparagraph (E) the fol12 lowing: 

13 ‘‘(F) under subsection (l) or (m) of section 5 of 

14 this Act that arises from a violation of the Digital 

15 Services Oversight and Safety Act of 2022 or a reg16 ulation issued under such Act;’’. 

17 (d) REGULATIONS.—The Commission may issue reg18 ulations under section 553 of title 5, United States Code, 

19 to implement this Act. 

20 SEC. 14. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

21 There is authorized to be appropriated to the Com22 mission to carry out this Act, and to remain available until 

23 expended, $500,000,000 for each fiscal year beginning 

24 with fiscal year 2022. 


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1 SEC. 15. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION. 

2 Nothing in section 230 of the Communications Act 

3 of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 230) may be construed to limit the 

4 application of, or to impair or limit the enforcement of— 

5 (1) this Act or a regulation issued under this 

6 Act; or 

7 (2) section 6(b) of the Federal Trade Commis8 sion Act (15 U.S.C. 46(b)). 

Æ 


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