2023 Louisiana Laws › Revised Statutes › Title 51 - Trade and Commerce › §51:1751. Definitions

RS 51:1751 - Definitions
For the purposes of this Chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:
(1) "Account holder" means a person who has or opens an account or profile to use a social media company's platform.
(2) "Director" means the director of the division of public protection of the Department of Justice.
(3) "Division" means the division of public protection of the Department of Justice.
(4) "Educational entity" means a Louisiana public school, a charter school, the Louisiana Schools for the Deaf and Visually Impaired, a private school, a community college, a state college, a state university, or a nonprofit private postsecondary educational institution.
(5) "Interactive computer service" means an information service, information system, or information access software provider that provides or enables computer access by multiple users to a computer server and provides access to the internet. An interactive computer service includes a web service, a web system, a website, a web application, or a web portal.
(6) "Louisiana account holder" means a person who is a resident of this state and an account holder, including a Louisiana minor account holder.
(7) "Louisiana minor account holder" means a Louisiana account holder who is a minor.
(8) "Louisiana resident" means an individual who currently resides in this state.
(9) "Minor" means an individual under circumstances where a social media company reasonably believes or has actual knowledge that the individual is under the age of sixteen and is not emancipated or married. A social media company shall treat an individual as a minor if the social media company verifies that the individual is under the age of sixteen, as provided in this Chapter.
(10) "Post" means content that an account holder makes available on a social media platform for other account holders or users to view.
(11) "Social media company" means a person or entity that provides a social media platform that has at least five million account holders worldwide and is an interactive computer service.
(12)(a) "Social media platform" means a public or semipublic internet-based service or application that has users in Louisiana and that meets all of the following:
(i) The service or application connects users in order to allow users to interact socially with each other within the service or application. A service or application that provides email or direct messaging services, enterprise cloud storage services, enterprise cybersecurity services, educational devices, or enterprise collaboration tools for K-12 schools shall not be considered to meet this criterion on the basis of that function alone.
(ii) The service or application allows users to do all of the following:
(aa) Construct a public or semipublic profile for purposes of signing into and using the service or application.
(bb) Populate a list of other users with whom an individual shares a social or virtual connection within the system, including subscribing to content related to another user.
(cc) Create or post content viewable by other users, including but not limited to on message boards, in chat rooms, on video channels, or through a landing page or main feed that presents the user with content generated by other users.
(b) "Social media platform" shall not include an online service, website, or application where the predominant or exclusive function is any of the following:
(i) Electronic mail.
(ii) A service that, pursuant to its terms of use, does not permit minors to use the platform and utilizes commercially reasonable age assurance mechanisms to attempt to prohibit minors from becoming an account holder or user.
(iii) A streaming service that provides only licensed media in a continuous flow from the service, website, or application to the end user and does not obtain a license to the media from a user or account holder by agreement to its terms of service.
(iv) News, sports, entertainment, or other content that is preselected by the provider and not user generated, and any chat, comment, or interactive functionality that is provided incidental to, directly related to, or dependent upon provisions of the content.
(v) Online shopping or electronic commerce, if the interaction with other users or account holders is generally limited to the ability to upload a post and comment on reviews, the ability to display lists or collections of goods for sale or wish lists, and any other function that is focused on online shopping or electronic commerce rather than interaction between users or account holders.
(vi) Interactive gaming, virtual gaming, or an online service that allows the creation and uploading of content and the communication related to that content for the purpose of interactive gaming, educational entertainment, or associated entertainment.
(vii) Photograph editing that has an associated photograph hosting service if the interaction with other users or account holders is generally limited to liking or commenting.
(viii) Single purpose community groups for public safety if the interaction with other users or account holders is limited to that single purpose and the community group has guidelines or policies against illegal content.
(ix) Career development opportunities, including professional networking, job skills, learning certifications, and job posting and application services.
(x) Business-to-business software.
(xi) A teleconferencing or videoconferencing service that allows reception and transmission of audio and video signals for real-time communication.
(xii) Cloud storage.
(xiii) Shared document collaboration.
(xiv) Cloud computing services, which may include cloud storage and shared document collaboration.
(xv) Providing access to or interacting with data visualization platforms, libraries, or hubs.
(xvi) Permitting comments on a digital news website if the news content is posted by only the provider of the digital news website.
(xvii) Providing or obtaining technical support for a platform, product, or service.
(xviii) Academic, scholarly, or genealogical research.
(xix) Internet access and broadband service.
(xx) A classified advertising service in which the provider of the online service, website, or application is limited to all of the following:
(aa) Permitting only the sale of goods.
(bb) Prohibiting the solicitation of personal service.
(cc) Posting or creating a substantial amount of the content.
(dd) Providing the ability to chat, comment, or interact with other users only if it is directly related to the provider's content.
(xxi) An online service, website, or application that is used by or under the direction of an educational entity, including a learning management system, a student engagement program, or a subject or skill-specific program, where the majority of the content is created or posted by the provider of the online service, website, or application and the ability to chat, comment, or interact with other users is directly related to the provider's content.
(13) "User" means a person who has access to view all or some of the posts on a social media platform but is not an account holder.
Acts 2023, No. 456, §1, eff. July 1, 2024.