I 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 3451 

To require covered platforms to provide information about their advertising 

to academic researchers, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MAY 20, 2021 

Mrs. TRAHAN (for herself and Ms. CASTOR of Florida) introduced the 

following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL 

To require covered platforms to provide information about 

their advertising to academic researchers, and for other 

purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Social Media Disclo5 sure And Transparency of Advertisements Act of 2021’’ 

6 or the ‘‘Social Media DATA Act’’. 

7 SEC. 2. REQUIREMENT. 

8 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after the 

9 date of the enactment of this Act, and every 3 years there10 after as needed, the Commission shall, in accordance with 


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1 section 553 of title 5, United States Code, issue regula2 tions that require the following: 

3 (1) A covered platform to maintain, and grant 

4 academic researchers and the Commission access to, 

5 an ad library that contains in a searchable, machine6 readable format and that is collected by the covered 

7 platform in the ordinary course of business the fol8 lowing information (which may be updated by the 

9 Commission as the Commission determines to be 

10 necessary) related to any advertiser that purchases 

11 $500 or more of advertising in a calender year: 

12 (A) The legal name and unique identifica13 tion number for each advertiser. 

14 (B) A digital copy of the ad content. 

15 (C) The method used, as selected either by 

16 the advertiser or by the covered platform, to 

17 target an ad to platform users, including 

18 uploaded lists of platform users, pre-set cat19 egories of platform users, key words, and con20 textual information. 

21 (D) The optimization objective chosen by 

22 the advertiser (such as awareness, reach, traf23 fic, and engagement). 

24 (E) A description of the targeted audience 

25 for each advertisement, including information 


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1 (that may have been collected from the profile 

2 of a user or based on an algorithm) on the de3 mographics of the audience (including age, gen4 der, geographic location, race, ethnicity, and po5 litical affiliation), interests of the audience, and 

6 any other description of the targeted audience 

7 determined to be reasonable by the Commission. 

8 (F) A description of the audience of the 

9 advertisement determined by a count of adver10 tiser viewership, including information (that 

11 may have been collected from the profile of a 

12 user or based on an algorithm) on the demo13 graphics of the audience (including age, gender, 

14 geographic location, race, ethnicity, and polit15 ical affiliation), interests of the audience, and 

16 any other description of the targeted audience 

17 determined to be reasonable by the Commission. 

18 (G) The number of views generated from 

19 the advertisement. 

20 (H) Ad conversion (including how often an 

21 ad was shared, liked, or clicked-through). 

22 (I) The date and time that the advertise23 ment was first displayed and last displayed. 

24 (J) The amount an advertiser budgeted for 

25 the purchase of the advertisement on the platVerDate Sep 11 2014 21:47 Jun 24, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3451.IH H3451

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1 form and the amount paid for the purchase of 

2 the advertisement on the platform. 

3 (K) The category of an ad as defined by 

4 the covered platform (such as politics, employ5 ment opportunity, housing opportunity, or ap6 parel). 

7 (L) Each language contained within the 

8 ad. 

9 (M) Each advertising policy of the covered 

10 platform that is made available to advertising 

11 customers on the covered platform. 

12 (2) The Commission to use the information in 

13 the ad library for law enforcement and studies unre14 lated to this Act. 

15 (3) The methodology to calculate the demo16 graphics of the targeted audience described in para17 graph (1)(E) to be the same method as the demo18 graphics calculated for the delivery audience de19 scribed in paragraph (1)(F). 

20 (4) Guidelines for the treatment of advertise21 ments that are deleted by the advertiser or blocked 

22 by the terms of service of the covered platform. 

23 (5) Guidelines for the time allotted between 

24 when an ad is posted on a covered platform and 


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1 when the information about the ad needs to be made 

2 available in the ad library. 

3 (6) Guidelines for how long an ad is required 

4 to remain available in the ad library. 

5 (b) ENFORCEMENT.— 

6 (1) ENFORCEMENT BY THE FEDERAL TRADE

7 COMMISSION.— 

8 (A) UNFAIR OR DECEPTIVE ACTS OR PRAC9 TICES.—A violation of subsection (a) shall be 

10 treated as a violation of a regulation under sec11 tion 18(a)(1)(B) of the Federal Trade Commis12 sion Act (15 U.S.C. 57a(a)(1)(B)) regarding 

13 unfair or deceptive acts or practices. 

14 (B) POWERS OF COMMISSION.—The Com15 mission shall enforce subsection (a) in the same 

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

17 jurisdiction, powers, and duties as though all 

18 applicable terms and provisions of the Federal 

19 Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.) 

20 were incorporated into and made a part of this 

21 Act. Any person who violates such subsection 

22 shall be subject to the penalties and entitled to 

23 the privileges and immunities provided in the 

24 Federal Trade Commission Act. 


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1 (2) EFFECT ON OTHER LAWS.—Nothing in this 

2 section shall be construed in any way to limit the 

3 authority of the Commission under any other provi4 sion of law or to limit the application of any Federal 

5 or State law. 

6 (3) ENFORCEMENT BY STATE ATTORNEYS GEN7 ERAL.— 

8 (A) IN GENERAL.—If the chief law en9 forcement officer of a State, or an official or 

10 agency designated by a State, has reason to be11 lieve that any person has violated or is violating 

12 subsection (a), the attorney general, official, or 

13 agency of the State, in addition to any author14 ity it may have to bring an action in State 

15 court under its consumer protection law, may 

16 bring a civil action in any appropriate United 

17 States district court or in any other court of 

18 competent jurisdiction, including a State court, 

19 to— 

20 (i) enjoin further such violation by 

21 such person; 

22 (ii) enforce compliance with such sub23 section; 

24 (iii) obtain civil penalties; and 


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1 (iv) obtain damages, restitution, or 

2 other compensation on behalf of residents 

3 of the State. 

4 (B) NOTICE AND INTERVENTION BY THE

5 FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION.—The attorney 

6 general of a State shall provide prior written 

7 notice of any action under subparagraph (A) to 

8 the Commission and provide the Commission 

9 with a copy of the complaint in the action, ex10 cept in any case in which such prior notice is 

11 not feasible, in which case the attorney general 

12 shall serve such notice immediately upon insti13 tuting such action. The Commission shall have 

14 the right— 

15 (i) to intervene in the action; 

16 (ii) upon so intervening, to be heard 

17 on all matters arising therein; and 

18 (iii) to file petitions for appeal. 

19 (C) LIMITATION ON STATE ACTION WHILE

20 FEDERAL ACTION IS PENDING.—If the Commis21 sion has instituted a civil action for violation of 

22 this section, no State attorney general, or offi23 cial or agency of a State, may bring an action 

24 under this paragraph during the pendency of 

25 that action against any defendant named in the 


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1 complaint of the Commission for any violation 

2 of this section alleged in the complaint. 

3 (c) WORKING GROUP FOR SOCIAL MEDIA RESEARCH

4 ACCESS.— 

5 (1) EMPLOYMENT AUTHORITY.—Not later than 

6 60 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, 

7 the Commission shall hire 2 or 3 employees who are 

8 privacy and technology experts to lead a series of 

9 stakeholder engagements, including round tables, 

10 public workshops, and open comment periods. Stake11 holders may include social media researchers, infor12 mation science researchers, privacy and civil rights 

13 advocates, technologists, representatives from social 

14 media companies, representatives from standards or15 ganizations, and representatives from international 

16 data governance bodies. 

17 (2) ESTABLISHMENT OF WORKING GROUP.— 

18 Not later than 30 days after the date on which the 

19 employees described in paragraph (1) are hired, the 

20 Commission shall establish a working group for so21 cial media research access (in this subsection the 

22 ‘‘working group’’) composed of the stakeholders de23 scribed in paragraph (1). 

24 (3) NO COMPENSATION FOR MEMBERS.—A 

25 member of the working group shall serve without 


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1 compensation in addition to any compensation re2 ceived for the service of the member as an officer or 

3 employee of the United States, if applicable. 

4 (4) REPORTS REQUIRED.— 

5 (A) BEST PRACTICES AND CODE OF CON6 DUCT.—Not later than 1 year after the date on 

7 which the working group is established pursu8 ant to paragraph (2), the Commission, in con9 sultation with the working group, shall make 

10 available to the public on the website of the 

11 Commission a report containing— 

12 (i) a description of the best practices 

13 regarding what type of information from 

14 an interactive computer service should be 

15 made available, and under what cir16 cumstances, to academic researchers; and 

17 (ii) a recommended code of conduct 

18 for academic researchers working with 

19 such information. 

20 (B) POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS.—Not 

21 later than 1 year after the date on which the 

22 working group is established pursuant to para23 graph (2), the working group shall submit to 

24 Congress a report with recommendations for 


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1 policy changes, which may include any of the 

2 following: 

3 (i) The types of information that 

4 should be made available to academic re5 searchers and under what circumstances 

6 interactive computer services should be re7 quired to grant access to academic re8 searchers. 

9 (ii) Circumstances in which additional 

10 legal protections for interactive computer 

11 services may be needed related to the shar12 ing of data with researchers. 

13 (iii) Recommendation for penalties for 

14 academic researchers who misuse or seek 

15 to inappropriately reidentify information 

16 provided to them by interactive computer 

17 services for research purposes. 

18 (C) REQUIREMENTS FOR REPORTS.—In 

19 preparing the reports described under subpara20 graph (A) and (B), the working group may con21 sider the following: 

22 (i) The type of information consid23 ered, including the following: 

24 (I) Information related to content 

25 moderation decisions including choices 


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1 related to the ranking, ordering, pro2 motion, recommendation of content, 

3 and requests for content removals. 

4 (II) Information related to en5 gagement (such as sharing and likes) 

6 with public links (such as news arti7 cles and video clips), including the de8 mographic breakdown of users that 

9 interact with content. 

10 (III) Information related to expo11 sure (viewership or impressions) with 

12 public links (such as news articles and 

13 video clips), including the demo14 graphic breakdown of users that inter15 act with content. 

16 (IV) Classification of public in17 formation sources (such as opinion 

18 and journalism). 

19 (V) Archives of formerly public 

20 accounts that were removed, including 

21 any special treatment of accounts that 

22 previously belonged to high-profile in23 dividuals. 

24 (VI) Archives of fake or bot ac25 counts that have been removed. 


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1 (VII) Archives of coordinated in2 fluence operation accounts that have 

3 been removed. 

4 (VIII) Research conducted by an 

5 interactive computer service internally 

6 related to the online behavior of a 

7 user including A/B studies and other 

8 internal research, including studies on 

9 interventions to slow spread of misin10 formation and disinformation, and to 

11 increase user deliberation, including 

12 warning labels, limits on sharing and 

13 posting, time delay on sharing and 

14 posting, and prompts to confirm. 

15 (IX) The most popular content 

16 on a platform. 

17 (ii) Storage of information and treat18 ment for each type of information consid19 ered, including the following: 

20 (I) Limits on time and amount of 

21 information stored broken down by 

22 the type of information. 

23 (II) Under what circumstances 

24 privacy preserving techniques such as 


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1 differential privacy and statistical 

2 noise could be used. 

3 (III) Required level of aggrega4 tion for demographic information. 

5 (IV) Standardized variable names 

6 across platforms for specific types of 

7 information. 

8 (V) Under what circumstances 

9 erasure policies (related to who and 

10 how an individual can request to be 

11 removed from a dataset) may be need12 ed, specifically for individuals who are 

13 less than 18 years old. 

14 (VI) Adherence to data security 

15 best practices. 

16 (iii) A consideration of access for each 

17 type of information considered, including 

18 the following: 

19 (I) Designation of secure facili20 ties and computers to analyze infor21 mation. 

22 (II) Set criteria for researcher 

23 access. 


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1 (III) Any limit on the type of re2 search that specific datasets can be 

3 used for. 

4 (iv) An analysis of how any of the rec5 ommendations might interact with inter6 national law and jurisdiction. 

7 (v) Policies for assuring that open 

8 science principles of reproducibility of re9 sults and replication of analyses can be re10 spected. 

11 (vi) Recommendations for the size and 

12 type of interactive computer service, which 

13 may vary. 

14 (5) INAPPLICABILITY OF FACA.—The Federal 

15 Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App.) does not 

16 apply to the working group. 

17 (d) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

18 (1) ACADEMIC RESEARCHER.— 

19 (A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘‘academic 

20 researcher’’ means an individual that conducts 

21 research— 

22 (i) in collaboration with an institution 

23 of higher education (as defined in section 

24 101(a) of the Higher Education Act of 

25 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001(a))); and 


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1 (ii) that is not for commercial pur2 poses. 

3 (B) DEFINITION BY COMMISSION.—The 

4 Commission may update this definition as the 

5 Commission determines to be necessary. 

6 (2) COMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’ 

7 means the Federal Trade Commission. 

8 (3) COVERED PLATFORM.— 

9 (A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘‘covered 

10 platform’’ means any website, desktop applica11 tion, or mobile application that is consumer-fac12 ing, sells digital advertising space, and has 

13 more than 100,000,000 monthly active users 

14 for a majority of months during the preceding 

15 12 months. The Commission may update this 

16 definition as the Commission determines to be 

17 necessary. 

18 (B) DEFINITION BY COMMISSION.—The 

19 Commission may update this definition as the 

20 Commission determines to be necessary. 

21 (4) INTERACTIVE COMPUTER SERVICE.—The 

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

23 given that term in section 230(f) of the Communica24 tions Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 230(f)). 


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1 (e) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—To assist 

2 the Commission in carrying out this Act, there is author3 ized to be appropriated and to remain available until ex4 pended— 

5 (1) for fiscal year 2022, $2,000,000; and 

6 (2) for fiscal year 2023, $2,000,000. 

Æ 


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