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

To remove immunity protections from social media platforms which host accounts of censoring foreign adversaries, and for other purposes. 1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Removing Section 230 Immunity for Official Accounts of Censoring Foreign Adversaries Act 2. Definitions In this Act: (1) Censoring foreign adversary The term censoring foreign adversary (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 (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 (5) User The term user 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 Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela. 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 (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).

Summary: Removing Section 230 Immunity for Official Accounts of Censoring Foreign Adversaries Act This bill eliminates liability protection (sometimes referred to as Section 230 protection) for particular social media platforms related to content generated or shared by adversarial foreign governments that restrict access to or censor social media platforms. The Department of State must compile of list of such governments, and the list must include China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Syria, and Venezuela. Under current law, a social media platform is generally not liable for content generated by third parties. Under this bill, if a social media platform knowingly hosts or distributes the content of a verified account controlled by or working on behalf of a listed government, the social media platform loses the liability protection for that content. (A verified account is one that displays a badge or other identifier that indicates the authenticity or validity of the account holder or has more than 500,000 followers.) The provisions of the bill apply to any domestically headquartered internet website, application, or platform that (1) is open to the public, including citizens from any country; (2) primarily enables users to communicate with each other by posting information, comments, messages, or images; and (3) has more than 50 million monthly users in the United States. The provisions do not apply to email services or services where content is preselected by the provider (i.e., not user generated) and any chat, comments, or interactive features depend on the preselected content.