I 
118TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2635 
To amend section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934 to limit liability 
protection provided by such section for providers of social media service, 
and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 17, 2023 
Mr. SANTOS introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Energy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To amend section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934 
to limit liability protection provided by such section for 
providers of social media service, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘The Big-Tech Account-
ability Act of 2023’’. 
SEC. 2. LIMITATION ON LIABILITY FOR PROVIDERS OF SO-
CIAL MEDIA SERVICE. 
Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 
U.S.C. 230) is amended— 
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(1) by redesignating subsection (f) as sub-
section (g); and 
(2) by inserting after subsection (e) the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(f) PROVIDERS OF SOCIAL MEDIA SERVICE.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Paragraphs (1) and (2) of 
subsection (c) shall not apply to a provider of a so-
cial media service that is a company with respect to 
any information provided through the service by an-
other information content provider after the date of 
the enactment of this subsection. 
‘‘(2) PROHIBITION.— 
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—It shall be unlawful 
for a provider of social media service that is a 
company to de-platform a citizen of the United 
States after the date this 90 days after the en-
actment of this subsection on the basis of the 
social, political, or religious status of such cit-
izen even if the citizen through the social media 
service of the provider clearly violates a policy 
of the company relating to— 
‘‘(i) hate speech; 
‘‘(ii) sexual harassment; 
‘‘(iii) discrimination on the basis of 
sex, religion, or sexual orientation; or 
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‘‘(iv) making violent threats, violent 
speech, or violent declarations. 
‘‘(B) CIVIL
PENALTY.—A provider that 
violates subparagraph (A) with respect to a cit-
izen of the United States shall be liable for a 
civil penalty in an amount of $5,000 for each 
day that the provider de-platforms the citizen. 
‘‘(3) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 
‘‘(A) DE-PLATFORM
A
CITIZEN
OF
THE 
UNITED STATES.—The term ‘de-platform a cit-
izen of the United States’ means, with respect 
to an account of the citizen, an action taken 
to— 
‘‘(i) decrease engagement with the ac-
count by users of the service; 
‘‘(ii) permanently suspend the ac-
count; or 
‘‘(iii) restricting the ability of a citizen 
to provide content through the account. 
‘‘(B) SOCIAL MEDIA SERVICE.—The term 
‘social media service’— 
‘‘(i) means an interactive computer 
service that— 
‘‘(I) allows for or hosts virtual 
facilitation of material, content, or in-
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formation over the service for the pur-
pose of facilitating public or wide-
spread interaction with such material, 
content, or information; 
‘‘(II) is meant for public dis-
course that focuses on communication 
and expression of ideas or opinions; or 
‘‘(III) hosts publicly accessible 
information or content, public or 
widespread interaction, and content 
distribution through the service; and 
‘‘(ii) includes interactive computer 
service provided by— 
‘‘(I) Meta; 
‘‘(II) Facebook; 
‘‘(III) Twitter; 
‘‘(IV) Instagram; and 
‘‘(V) Tik Tok.’’. 
Æ 
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