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| | 103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2023 and 2024
HB3943 Introduced , by Rep. Jenn Ladisch Douglass SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:
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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.
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| | A BILL FOR |
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| 1 | | AN ACT concerning business.
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| 2 | | Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
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| 3 | | represented in the General Assembly:
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| 4 | | Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Social |
| 5 | | Media Content Moderation Act.
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| 6 | | Section 5. Definitions. |
| 7 | | "Actioned" means a social media company, due to a |
| 8 | | suspected or confirmed violation of the terms of service, has |
| 9 | | taken some form of action, including, but not limited to, |
| 10 | | removal, demonetization, deprioritization, or banning, against |
| 11 | | the relevant user or relevant item of content. |
| 12 | | "Content" means statements or comments made by users and |
| 13 | | media that are created, posted, shared, or otherwise |
| 14 | | interacted with by users on an Internet-based service or |
| 15 | | application. "Content" does not include media put on a service |
| 16 | | or application exclusively for the purpose of cloud storage, |
| 17 | | transmitting files, or file collaboration. |
| 18 | | "Public or semi-public Internet-based service or |
| 19 | | application" does not include a service or application used to |
| 20 | | facilitate communication within a business or enterprise among |
| 21 | | employees or affiliates of the business or enterprise, as long |
| 22 | | as access to the service or application is restricted to |
| 23 | | employees or affiliates of the business or enterprise using |
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| 1 | | the service or application. |
| 2 | | "Social media company" means a person or entity that owns |
| 3 | | or operates one or more social media platforms.
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| 4 | | "Social media platform" means a public or semi-public |
| 5 | | Internet-based service or application that has users in this |
| 6 | | State and that meets the following criteria: |
| 7 | | (1) a substantial function of the service or |
| 8 | | application is to connect users in order to allow users to |
| 9 | | interact socially with each other within the service or |
| 10 | | application; and |
| 11 | | (2) the service or application allows users to do all |
| 12 | | of the following: |
| 13 | | (A) construct a public or semi-public profile for |
| 14 | | purposes of signing into and using the service or |
| 15 | | application; |
| 16 | | (B) populate a list of other users with whom an |
| 17 | | individual shares a social connection within the |
| 18 | | system; and |
| 19 | | (C) create or post content viewable by other |
| 20 | | users, including, but not limited to, on message |
| 21 | | boards, in chat rooms, or through a landing page or |
| 22 | | main feed that presents the user with content |
| 23 | | generated by other users. |
| 24 | | "Terms of service" means a policy or set of policies |
| 25 | | adopted by a social media company that specifies the user |
| 26 | | behavior and activities that are permitted on the |
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| 1 | | Internet-based service owned or operated by the social media |
| 2 | | company and the user behavior and activities that may subject |
| 3 | | the user or an item of content to being actioned.
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| 4 | | Section 10. Terms of service requirements. |
| 5 | | (a) A social media company shall post terms of service for |
| 6 | | each social media platform owned or operated by the company in |
| 7 | | a manner reasonably designed to inform all users of the social |
| 8 | | media platform of the existence and contents of the terms of |
| 9 | | service. |
| 10 | | (b) The terms of service posted required by subsection (a) |
| 11 | | shall include all of the following: |
| 12 | | (1) contact information for the purpose of allowing |
| 13 | | users to ask the social media company questions about the |
| 14 | | terms of service; |
| 15 | | (2) a description of the process that users must |
| 16 | | follow to flag content, groups, or other users that they |
| 17 | | believe violate the terms of service, and the social media |
| 18 | | company's commitments on response and resolution time; and |
| 19 | | (3) a list of potential actions the social media |
| 20 | | company may take against an item of content or a user, |
| 21 | | including, but not limited to, removal, demonetization, |
| 22 | | deprioritization, or banning.
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| 23 | | Section 15. Report to the Attorney General. |
| 24 | | (a) On a semiannual basis in accordance with subsection |
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| 1 | | (b), a social media company shall submit to the Attorney |
| 2 | | General a terms of service report. The terms of service report |
| 3 | | shall include, for each social media platform owned or |
| 4 | | operated by the company, all of the following: |
| 5 | | (1) the current version of the terms of service of the |
| 6 | | social media platform; |
| 7 | | (2) if a social media company has filed its first |
| 8 | | report, a complete and detailed description of any changes |
| 9 | | to the terms of service since the previous report; |
| 10 | | (3) a statement of whether the current version of the |
| 11 | | terms of service defines each of the following categories |
| 12 | | of content, and, if so, the definitions of those |
| 13 | | categories, including any subcategories; |
| 14 | | (A) hate speech or racism; |
| 15 | | (B) extremism or radicalization; |
| 16 | | (C) disinformation or misinformation; |
| 17 | | (D) harassment; and |
| 18 | | (E) foreign political interference; |
| 19 | | (4) a detailed description of content moderation |
| 20 | | practices used by the social media company for that |
| 21 | | platform, including, but not limited to, all of the |
| 22 | | following: |
| 23 | | (A) any existing policies intended to address the |
| 24 | | categories of content described in paragraph (3); |
| 25 | | (B) how automated content moderation systems |
| 26 | | enforce terms of service of the social media platform |
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| 1 | | and when these systems involve human review; |
| 2 | | (C) how the social media company responds to user |
| 3 | | reports of violations of the terms of service; |
| 4 | | (D) how the social media company would remove |
| 5 | | individual pieces of content, users, or groups that |
| 6 | | violate the terms of service, or take broader action |
| 7 | | against individual users or against groups of users |
| 8 | | that violate the terms of service; and |
| 9 | | (E) the languages in which the social media |
| 10 | | platform does not make terms of service available, but |
| 11 | | does offer product features, including, but not |
| 12 | | limited to, menus and prompts; |
| 13 | | (5) information on content that was flagged by the |
| 14 | | social media company as content belonging to any of the |
| 15 | | categories described in paragraph (3), including all of |
| 16 | | the following: |
| 17 | | (A) the total number of flagged items of content; |
| 18 | | (B) the total number of actioned items of content; |
| 19 | | (C) the total number of actioned items of content |
| 20 | | that resulted in action taken by the social media |
| 21 | | company against the user or group of users responsible |
| 22 | | for the content; |
| 23 | | (D) the total number of actioned items of content |
| 24 | | that were removed, demonetized, or deprioritized by |
| 25 | | the social media company; |
| 26 | | (E) the number of times actioned items of content |
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| 1 | | were viewed by users; |
| 2 | | (F) the number of times actioned items of content |
| 3 | | were shared, and the number of users that viewed the |
| 4 | | content before it was actioned; and |
| 5 | | (G) the number of times users appealed social |
| 6 | | media company actions taken on that platform and the |
| 7 | | number of reversals of social media company actions on |
| 8 | | appeal disaggregated by each type of action; and |
| 9 | | (6) the information required by paragraph (5) |
| 10 | | disaggregated into the following categories: |
| 11 | | (A) the category of content, including any |
| 12 | | relevant categories described in paragraph (3); |
| 13 | | (B) the type of content, including, but not |
| 14 | | limited to, posts, comments, messages, profiles of |
| 15 | | users, or groups of users; |
| 16 | | (C) the type of media of the content, including, |
| 17 | | but not limited to, text, images, and videos; |
| 18 | | (D) how the content was flagged, including, but |
| 19 | | not limited to, by company employees or contractors, |
| 20 | | by artificial intelligence software, by community |
| 21 | | moderators, by civil society partners, and by users; |
| 22 | | and |
| 23 | | (E) how the content was actioned, including, but |
| 24 | | not limited to, by company employees or contractors, |
| 25 | | by artificial intelligence software, by community |
| 26 | | moderators, by civil society partners, and by users. |
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| 1 | | (b) A social media company shall electronically submit a |
| 2 | | semiannual terms of service report required by subsection (a), |
| 3 | | covering activity within the third and fourth quarters of the |
| 4 | | preceding calendar year, to the Attorney General no later than |
| 5 | | April 1 of each year, and shall electronically submit a |
| 6 | | semiannual terms of service report required by subsection (a), |
| 7 | | covering activity within the first and second quarters of the |
| 8 | | current calendar year, to the Attorney General no later than |
| 9 | | October 1 of each year. |
| 10 | | (c) Notwithstanding subsection (b), a social media company |
| 11 | | shall electronically submit its first terms of service report |
| 12 | | as required by subsection (a), covering activity within the |
| 13 | | third quarter of 2023, to the Attorney General no later than |
| 14 | | January 1, 2024, and shall electronically submit its second |
| 15 | | terms of service report as required by subsection (a), |
| 16 | | covering activity within the fourth quarter of 2023, to the |
| 17 | | Attorney General no later than April 1, 2024. A social media |
| 18 | | platform shall submit its third report no later than October |
| 19 | | 1, 2024, in accordance with subsection (b). |
| 20 | | (d) The Attorney General shall make all terms of service |
| 21 | | reports submitted under this Section available to the public |
| 22 | | in a searchable repository on its official Internet website.
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| 23 | | Section 20. Violations; civil penalties. |
| 24 | | (a) A social media company that violates the provisions of |
| 25 | | this Act shall be liable for a civil penalty not to exceed |
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| 1 | | $15,000 per violation per day, and may be enjoined in any court |
| 2 | | of competent jurisdiction. |
| 3 | | (b) A social media company shall be considered in |
| 4 | | violation of the provisions of this Act for each day the social |
| 5 | | media company does any of the following: |
| 6 | | (1) fails to post terms of service in accordance with |
| 7 | | Section 10; |
| 8 | | (2) fails to timely submit to the Attorney General a |
| 9 | | report described in Section 15; or |
| 10 | | (3) materially omits or misrepresents required |
| 11 | | information in a report submitted as described in Section |
| 12 | | 15. |
| 13 | | (c) In assessing the amount of a civil penalty as |
| 14 | | described in subsection (a), the court shall consider whether |
| 15 | | the social media company has made a reasonable, good faith |
| 16 | | attempt to comply with the provisions of this Act. |
| 17 | | (d) Actions for relief under this Act shall be prosecuted |
| 18 | | exclusively in a court of competent jurisdiction by the |
| 19 | | Attorney General or by a city attorney of a city having a |
| 20 | | population greater than 750,000. |
| 21 | | (e) If an action under this Section is brought by the |
| 22 | | Attorney General, 50% of the penalty collected shall be paid |
| 23 | | to the treasurer of the county in which the judgment was |
| 24 | | entered, and 50% of the penalty collected shall be deposited |
| 25 | | in the General Revenue Fund. If the action is brought by a city |
| 26 | | attorney, 50% of the penalty collected shall be paid to the |
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| 1 | | treasurer of the city in which the judgment was entered, and |
| 2 | | 50% to the treasurer of the county in which the judgment was |
| 3 | | entered.
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| 4 | | Section 25. Relation to other laws. |
| 5 | | (a) The duties and obligations imposed by this Act are |
| 6 | | cumulative to any other duties or obligations imposed under |
| 7 | | local, State, or federal law and shall not be construed to |
| 8 | | relieve any party from any duties or obligations imposed under |
| 9 | | law. |
| 10 | | (b) The remedies or penalties provided by this Act are |
| 11 | | cumulative to each other and to any other remedies or |
| 12 | | penalties available under local, State, or federal law.
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| 13 | | Section 30. Exceptions. |
| 14 | | (a) This Act shall not apply to a social media company that |
| 15 | | generated less than $100,000,000 in gross revenue during the |
| 16 | | preceding calendar year. |
| 17 | | (b) This Act shall not be construed to apply to an |
| 18 | | Internet-based service or application for which interactions |
| 19 | | between users are limited to direct messages, commercial |
| 20 | | transactions, consumer reviews of products, sellers, services, |
| 21 | | events, or places.
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| 22 | | Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon |
| 23 | | becoming law.
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