[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2154 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
117th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 2154
To amend section 230(c) of the Communications Act of 1934 to prevent
immunity for interactive computer services for certain claims, and for
other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
March 23, 2021
Mr. Malinowski (for himself, Ms. Eshoo, Ms. Jacobs of California, Mr.
Neguse, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, Mr. Phillips, Ms. Lee of California, Mr.
Casten, Ms. Stevens, and Mr. Welch) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To amend section 230(c) of the Communications Act of 1934 to prevent
immunity for interactive computer services for certain claims, 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 ``Protecting Americans from Dangerous
Algorithms Act''.
SEC. 2. AMENDMENT TO THE COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT.
Section 230(c) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 230(c))
is amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
``(3) Algorithmic amplification.--
``(A) In general.--For purposes of paragraph (1),
an interactive computer service shall be considered to
be an information content provider and the protection
under such paragraph shall not apply for any claim
described in subparagraph (B).
``(B) Conditions for claim.--
``(i) In general.--A claim in this
subparagraph requires the following:
``(I) A claim in a civil action is
brought under--
``(aa) section 1980 or 1981
of the Revised Statutes (42
U.S.C. 1985; 42 U.S.C. 1986);
or
``(bb) section 2333 of
title 18, United States Code.
``(II) Except as provided in clause
(ii), the claim involves a case in
which the interactive computer service
used an algorithm, model, or other
computational process to rank, order,
promote, recommend, amplify, or
similarly alter the delivery or display
of information (including any text,
image, audio, or video post, page,
group, account, channel, or
affiliation) provided to a user of the
service if the information is directly
relevant to the claim.
``(ii) Exception.--Notwithstanding clause
(i)(II), the requirement is not met if--
``(I) the information delivery or
display is ranked, ordered, promoted,
recommended, amplified, or similarly
altered in a way that is obvious,
understandable, and transparent to a
reasonable user based only on the
delivery or display of the information
(without the need to reference the
terms of service or any other
agreement), including sorting
information--
``(aa) chronologically or
reverse chronologically;
``(bb) by average user
rating or number of user
reviews;
``(cc) alphabetically;
``(dd) randomly; and
``(ee) by views, downloads,
or a similar usage metric; or
``(II) the algorithm, model, or
other computational process is used for
information a user specifically
searches for.
``(C) Exemptions.--
``(i) Small businesses.--This paragraph
shall not apply to an interactive computer
service that (in combination with each
subsidiary and affiliate of the service) has
10,000,000 or fewer unique monthly visitors or
users for not fewer than three of the preceding
12 months.
``(ii) Internet infrastructure.--This
paragraph shall not apply to a provider of an
interactive computer service, when that service
is used by another interactive computer service
for the management, control, or operation of
that other interactive computer service,
including for--
``(I) web hosting;
``(II) domain registration;
``(III) content delivery networks;
``(IV) caching;
``(V) data storage; and
``(VI) cybersecurity.''.
<all>