[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3029 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
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117th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 3029
To amend section 230(c) of the Communications Act of 1934 to remove
immunity for providers of interactive computer services for certain
claims, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
October 20, 2021
Mr. Lujan introduced the following bill; which was read twice and
referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To amend section 230(c) of the Communications Act of 1934 to remove
immunity for providers of 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:
``(3) Algorithmic amplification.--
``(A) In general.--For purposes of paragraph (1), a
provider of an interactive computer service shall be
considered to be an information content provider and
the protection under that paragraph shall not apply for
any claim described in subparagraph (B) of this
paragraph.
``(B) Conditions for claim.--
``(i) In general.--A claim described in
this subparagraph is a claim--
``(I) in a civil action brought
under--
``(aa) section 1980 or 1981
of the Revised Statutes (42
U.S.C. 1985, 1986); or
``(bb) section 2333 of
title 18, United States Code;
and
``(II) that, except as provided in
clause (ii), 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.--The requirement under
clause (i)(II) is not satisfied 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 for which a user
specifically searches.
``(C) Exemptions.--
``(i) Small businesses.--Subparagraph (A)
shall not apply to an interactive computer
service that (in combination with each
subsidiary and affiliate of the service) had
not more than 10,000,000 unique monthly
visitors or users for not fewer than 3 of the
preceding 12 months.
``(ii) Internet infrastructure.--
Subparagraph (A) shall not apply to a provider
of an interactive computer service that 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.''.
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