Bill Text: IL HB3943 | 2023-2024 | 103rd General Assembly | Introduced

---

Bill Title: Creates the Social Media Content Moderation Act. Provides that a social media company shall post terms of service for each social media platform owned or operated by the company in a manner reasonably designed to inform all users of the social media platform of the existence and contents of the terms of service. Provides that on a semiannual basis, a social media company shall submit to the Attorney General a terms of service report including specified information. Provides that a social media company that violates the provisions of the Act shall be liable for a civil penalty not to exceed $15,000 per violation per day. Effective immediately.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2023-03-10 - Rule 19(a) / Re-referred to Rules Committee [HB3943 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2023-HB3943-Introduced.html

---

103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY State of Illinois 2023 and 2024 HB3943 Introduced , by Rep. Jenn Ladisch Douglass SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:
New Act
Creates the Social Media Content Moderation Act. Provides that a social media company shall post terms of service for each social media platform owned or operated by the company in a manner reasonably designed to inform all users of the social media platform of the existence and contents of the terms of service. Provides that on a semiannual basis, a social media company shall submit to the Attorney General a terms of service report including specified information. Provides that a social media company that violates the provisions of the Act shall be liable for a civil penalty not to exceed $15,000 per violation per day. Effective immediately.
LRB103 30233 SPS 56661 b
A BILL FOR
HB3943 LRB103 30233 SPS 56661 b
AN ACT concerning business.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Social
Media Content Moderation Act.
Section 5. Definitions.
"Actioned" means a social media company, due to a
suspected or confirmed violation of the terms of service, has
taken some form of action, including, but not limited to,
removal, demonetization, deprioritization, or banning, against
the relevant user or relevant item of content.
"Content" means statements or comments made by users and
media that are created, posted, shared, or otherwise
interacted with by users on an Internet-based service or
application. "Content" does not include media put on a service
or application exclusively for the purpose of cloud storage,
transmitting files, or file collaboration.
"Public or semi-public Internet-based service or
application" does not include a service or application used to
facilitate communication within a business or enterprise among
employees or affiliates of the business or enterprise, as long
as access to the service or application is restricted to
employees or affiliates of the business or enterprise using

HB3943 - 2 - LRB103 30233 SPS 56661 b
the service or application.
"Social media company" means a person or entity that owns
or operates one or more social media platforms.
"Social media platform" means a public or semi-public
Internet-based service or application that has users in this
State and that meets the following criteria:
(1) a substantial function of the service or
application is to connect users in order to allow users to
interact socially with each other within the service or
application; and
(2) the service or application allows users to do all
of the following:
(A) construct a public or semi-public profile for
purposes of signing into and using the service or
application;
(B) populate a list of other users with whom an
individual shares a social connection within the
system; and
(C) create or post content viewable by other
users, including, but not limited to, on message
boards, in chat rooms, or through a landing page or
main feed that presents the user with content
generated by other users.
"Terms of service" means a policy or set of policies
adopted by a social media company that specifies the user
behavior and activities that are permitted on the

HB3943 - 3 - LRB103 30233 SPS 56661 b
Internet-based service owned or operated by the social media
company and the user behavior and activities that may subject
the user or an item of content to being actioned.
Section 10. Terms of service requirements.
(a) A social media company shall post terms of service for
each social media platform owned or operated by the company in
a manner reasonably designed to inform all users of the social
media platform of the existence and contents of the terms of
service.
(b) The terms of service posted required by subsection (a)
shall include all of the following:
(1) contact information for the purpose of allowing
users to ask the social media company questions about the
terms of service;
(2) a description of the process that users must
follow to flag content, groups, or other users that they
believe violate the terms of service, and the social media
company's commitments on response and resolution time; and
(3) a list of potential actions the social media
company may take against an item of content or a user,
including, but not limited to, removal, demonetization,
deprioritization, or banning.
Section 15. Report to the Attorney General.
(a) On a semiannual basis in accordance with subsection

HB3943 - 4 - LRB103 30233 SPS 56661 b
(b), a social media company shall submit to the Attorney
General a terms of service report. The terms of service report
shall include, for each social media platform owned or
operated by the company, all of the following:
(1) the current version of the terms of service of the
social media platform;
(2) if a social media company has filed its first
report, a complete and detailed description of any changes
to the terms of service since the previous report;
(3) a statement of whether the current version of the
terms of service defines each of the following categories
of content, and, if so, the definitions of those
categories, including any subcategories;
(A) hate speech or racism;
(B) extremism or radicalization;
(C) disinformation or misinformation;
(D) harassment; and
(E) foreign political interference;
(4) a detailed description of content moderation
practices used by the social media company for that
platform, including, but not limited to, all of the
following:
(A) any existing policies intended to address the
categories of content described in paragraph (3);
(B) how automated content moderation systems
enforce terms of service of the social media platform

HB3943 - 5 - LRB103 30233 SPS 56661 b
and when these systems involve human review;
(C) how the social media company responds to user
reports of violations of the terms of service;
(D) how the social media company would remove
individual pieces of content, users, or groups that
violate the terms of service, or take broader action
against individual users or against groups of users
that violate the terms of service; and
(E) the languages in which the social media
platform does not make terms of service available, but
does offer product features, including, but not
limited to, menus and prompts;
(5) information on content that was flagged by the
social media company as content belonging to any of the
categories described in paragraph (3), including all of
the following:
(A) the total number of flagged items of content;
(B) the total number of actioned items of content;
(C) the total number of actioned items of content
that resulted in action taken by the social media
company against the user or group of users responsible
for the content;
(D) the total number of actioned items of content
that were removed, demonetized, or deprioritized by
the social media company;
(E) the number of times actioned items of content

HB3943 - 6 - LRB103 30233 SPS 56661 b
were viewed by users;
(F) the number of times actioned items of content
were shared, and the number of users that viewed the
content before it was actioned; and
(G) the number of times users appealed social
media company actions taken on that platform and the
number of reversals of social media company actions on
appeal disaggregated by each type of action; and
(6) the information required by paragraph (5)
disaggregated into the following categories:
(A) the category of content, including any
relevant categories described in paragraph (3);
(B) the type of content, including, but not
limited to, posts, comments, messages, profiles of
users, or groups of users;
(C) the type of media of the content, including,
but not limited to, text, images, and videos;
(D) how the content was flagged, including, but
not limited to, by company employees or contractors,
by artificial intelligence software, by community
moderators, by civil society partners, and by users;
and
(E) how the content was actioned, including, but
not limited to, by company employees or contractors,
by artificial intelligence software, by community
moderators, by civil society partners, and by users.

HB3943 - 7 - LRB103 30233 SPS 56661 b
(b) A social media company shall electronically submit a
semiannual terms of service report required by subsection (a),
covering activity within the third and fourth quarters of the
preceding calendar year, to the Attorney General no later than
April 1 of each year, and shall electronically submit a
semiannual terms of service report required by subsection (a),
covering activity within the first and second quarters of the
current calendar year, to the Attorney General no later than
October 1 of each year.
(c) Notwithstanding subsection (b), a social media company
shall electronically submit its first terms of service report
as required by subsection (a), covering activity within the
third quarter of 2023, to the Attorney General no later than
January 1, 2024, and shall electronically submit its second
terms of service report as required by subsection (a),
covering activity within the fourth quarter of 2023, to the
Attorney General no later than April 1, 2024. A social media
platform shall submit its third report no later than October
1, 2024, in accordance with subsection (b).
(d) The Attorney General shall make all terms of service
reports submitted under this Section available to the public
in a searchable repository on its official Internet website.
Section 20. Violations; civil penalties.
(a) A social media company that violates the provisions of
this Act shall be liable for a civil penalty not to exceed

HB3943 - 8 - LRB103 30233 SPS 56661 b
$15,000 per violation per day, and may be enjoined in any court
of competent jurisdiction.
(b) A social media company shall be considered in
violation of the provisions of this Act for each day the social
media company does any of the following:
(1) fails to post terms of service in accordance with
Section 10;
(2) fails to timely submit to the Attorney General a
report described in Section 15; or
(3) materially omits or misrepresents required
information in a report submitted as described in Section
15.
(c) In assessing the amount of a civil penalty as
described in subsection (a), the court shall consider whether
the social media company has made a reasonable, good faith
attempt to comply with the provisions of this Act.
(d) Actions for relief under this Act shall be prosecuted
exclusively in a court of competent jurisdiction by the
Attorney General or by a city attorney of a city having a
population greater than 750,000.
(e) If an action under this Section is brought by the
Attorney General, 50% of the penalty collected shall be paid
to the treasurer of the county in which the judgment was
entered, and 50% of the penalty collected shall be deposited
in the General Revenue Fund. If the action is brought by a city
attorney, 50% of the penalty collected shall be paid to the

HB3943 - 9 - LRB103 30233 SPS 56661 b
treasurer of the city in which the judgment was entered, and
50% to the treasurer of the county in which the judgment was
entered.
Section 25. Relation to other laws.
(a) The duties and obligations imposed by this Act are
cumulative to any other duties or obligations imposed under
local, State, or federal law and shall not be construed to
relieve any party from any duties or obligations imposed under
law.
(b) The remedies or penalties provided by this Act are
cumulative to each other and to any other remedies or
penalties available under local, State, or federal law.
Section 30. Exceptions.
(a) This Act shall not apply to a social media company that
generated less than $100,000,000 in gross revenue during the
preceding calendar year.
(b) This Act shall not be construed to apply to an
Internet-based service or application for which interactions
between users are limited to direct messages, commercial
transactions, consumer reviews of products, sellers, services,
events, or places.
Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon
becoming law.