Removing Section 230 Immunity for Official Accounts of Censoring Foreign Adversaries Act

Subjects: Science, Technology, Communications


<html><body><pre>[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 941 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

&lt;DOC&gt;






118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 941

 To remove immunity protections from social media platforms which host 
   accounts of censoring foreign adversaries, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 22, 2023

 Mr. Rubio (for himself and Mr. Braun) introduced the following bill; 
    which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, 
                      Science, and Transportation

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To remove immunity protections from social media platforms which host 
   accounts of censoring foreign adversaries, and for other purposes.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Removing Section 230 Immunity for 
Official Accounts of Censoring Foreign Adversaries Act''.

SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) Censoring foreign adversary.--The term ``censoring 
        foreign adversary'' means an adversarial foreign government 
        that--
                    (A) restricts access to covered social media 
                platforms; and
                    (B) is designated as a censoring foreign adversary 
                pursuant to section 3.
            (2) Covered, verified, or other authentic account.--The 
        term ``covered, verified, or other authentic account'' means 
        any account on a covered social media platform that--
                    (A) is under the control or working on behalf of--
                            (i) a government agency, department, 
                        ministry, or institution of a censoring foreign 
                        adversary;
                            (ii) a government official of a censoring 
                        foreign adversary, including heads of state, 
                        elected officials, appointed ministers, 
                        ambassadors, and official spokespersons; or
                            (iii) a company, or the employees of a 
                        company, that--
                                    (I) is directly or indirectly owned 
                                by a censoring foreign adversary;
                                    (II) is controlled by a censoring 
                                foreign adversary that has the 
                                authority to decide important matters 
                                with respect to such company; or
                                    (III) has, as a shareholder holding 
                                at least 10 percent of the outstanding 
                                voting stock or shares of the company, 
                                a censoring foreign adversary; and
                    (B)(i) displays a badge, check mark, or other 
                public-facing identification tool that--
                            (I) is issued by the platform; and
                            (II) is used to indicate the authenticity, 
                        validity, or verification of the person, 
                        organization, government, or other entity, 
                        represented by the account; or
                    (ii) has more than 500,000 followers.
            (3) Covered social media platform.--The term ``covered 
        social media platform''--
                    (A) means an Internet website, application, or 
                platform that--
                            (i) is open to the public;
                            (ii) allows citizens from any country to 
                        create an account on, register for, and enjoy 
                        as a user, such website, application, or 
                        platform;
                            (iii) enables users to communicate with 
                        other users for the primary purpose of posting 
                        information, comments, messages, or images;
                            (iv) has more than 50,000,000 active users 
                        in the United States in a calendar month; and
                            (v) is headquartered, or has its principal 
                        place of business, in the United States; and
                    (B) does not include--
                            (i) electronic mail; or
                            (ii) an online service, application, or 
                        website--
                                    (I) that consists primarily of 
                                news, sports, entertainment, or other 
                                information or content that is not user 
                                generated, but is preselected by the 
                                provider; and
                                    (II) for which any chat, comments, 
                                or interactive functionality is 
                                incidental to, directly related to, or 
                                dependent on the provision of the 
                                content described in subparagraph (I).
            (4) Follower.--The term ``follower'' means an account that 
        has taken any action to subscribe to another account's content, 
        updates, or posts.
            (5) User.--The term ``user'' means a person or entity who 
        posts, uploads, transmits, shares, or otherwise publishes or 
        receives content through a social media platform.

SEC. 3. DESIGNATED CENSORING FOREIGN ADVERSARIES.

    The Secretary of State shall compile a list of censoring foreign 
adversaries, which shall include--
            (1) the Government of the People's Republic of China;
            (2) the Government of the Russian Federation;
            (3) the Government of the Democratic People's Republic of 
        Korea;
            (4) the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran;
            (5) the Government of the Republic of Cuba;
            (6) the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic; and
            (7) the regime of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela.

SEC. 4. LIABILITY PROTECTION.

    (a) In General.--Covered social media platforms that knowingly 
host, distribute, or actively display a covered, verified, or other 
authentic account of a censoring foreign adversary shall not receive 
any protection under section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 
U.S.C. 230) for content shared, edited, or created by such account.
    (b) Clarification.--For purposes of subsection (a), a covered 
social media platform is deemed to have knowledge with respect to any 
content shared, edited, or created by a covered, verified, or other 
authentic account that meets the requirements described in section 
2(2)(B)(i).
                                 &lt;all&gt;
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