Bill Text: NJ A4738 | 2024-2025 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Establishes requirements for social media companies concerning content moderation practices; establishes cause of action against social media companies for violation of content moderation practices.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-09-12 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Science, Innovation and Technology Committee [A4738 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2024-A4738-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman PAUL KANITRA
District 10 (Monmouth and Ocean)
SYNOPSIS
Establishes requirements for social media companies concerning content moderation practices; establishes cause of action against social media companies for violation of content moderation practices.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning social media companies that use content moderation practices and supplementing Title 56 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the "Social Media Fairness and Transparency Act."
2. As used in P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill):
"Algorithm" means a mathematical set of rules that specify how a group of data will assist in ranking search results and maintaining order or will be used in sorting or ranking content or material based on relevancy or other factors instead of using published time or chronological order of such content or material.
"Anonymous user ban" means action by a social media company, through any means, whether the action is determined by a natural person or an algorithm, to limit or eliminate the exposure of a user to other users of the social media platform. "Anonymous user ban" includes acts of banning by a social media company that are not readily apparent to a user.
"Censor" means any action taken by a social media company to delete, regulate, restrict, edit, alter, inhibit the publication or republication of, suspend a right to post, remove, or post an addendum to any content or material posted by a user. "Censor" includes actions to inhibit the ability of a user to be viewable by or to interact with another user of the social media platform.
"Individual" means a human being.
"Journalistic enterprise" means any entity:
a. publishing words, audio, or video online and making such published material available to Internet users;
b. operating a cable television channel providing content for cable television subscribers; or
c. operating under a broadcast license issued by the Federal Communications Commission.
"Obscene" means material that a reasonable person, applying contemporary community ethical standards, would find that, taken as a whole, the dominant theme of the material appeals to prurient interests.
"Post prioritization" means action by a social media company or by the algorithm employed by the social media company to place, feature, or prioritize certain content or material ahead of other content or material in a newsfeed, view, or Internet search result list. "Post prioritization" does not include post prioritization of content and material based on payments by a third party, including other users, to the social media company.
"Post suppression" means action by a social media company or by the algorithm employed by the social media company to limit, censor, or suppress certain content or material in a newsfeed, view, or Internet search result list.
"Selective suspension" means the action or practice by a social media company to permanently delete or ban a user or to temporarily delete or ban a user for more than 60 days.
"Social media advertising" means a form of digital advertising that provides paid advertisements to a specific audience using social media platforms.
"Social media company" means a sole proprietorship, partnership, limited liability company, corporation, association, or other legal entity that is organized or operated for the profit or financial benefit of its shareholders or other owners and that provides or operates a social media platform.
"Social media platform" means any information service, system, Internet search engine, or access software provider that does business in the State of New Jersey, and provides or enables computer access by multiple users to a computer server, including an Internet website or a social media Internet website, or both that satisfies two or more of the following conditions:
a. is open to the public;
b. has annual gross revenues in excess of $100 million, as adjusted in January of every odd-numbered year to reflect any increase in the Consumer Price Index;
c. has at least 100 million monthly users globally; or
d. has at least 25 million consistent and unique monthly users who are located in the United States.
"Trade secret" means information, held by one or more people, without regard to form, including a formula, pattern, business data compilation, program, device, method, technique, design, diagram, drawing, invention, plan, procedure, prototype, or process, that: (1) derives independent economic value, actual or potential, from not being generally known to, and not being readily ascertainable by proper means by, other persons who can obtain economic value from its disclosure or use; and (2) is the subject of efforts that are reasonable under the circumstances to maintain its secrecy.
"User" means a person who has an account on a social media platform, regardless of whether the person posts or has posted content or material to the social media platform.
3. a. It shall be an unlawful practice and violation of the New Jersey consumer fraud act, P.L.1960, c.39 (C.56:8-1 et seq.), if a social media company that operates within this State fails to comply with the requirements set forth in this section. A social media company that operates within this State shall:
(1) publish the standards, including detailed definitions, it uses or has used for determining how to censor, selectively suspend, or implement an anonymous user ban;
(2) apply censorship, selective suspension, and anonymous user banning standards in a consistent manner among its users on the social media platform;
(3) notify users about any changes to user rules, terms, and agreements prior to implementing such changes;
(4) not censor a user's content or material or selectively suspend a user from the social media platform without providing notification to the user who posted or attempted to post the content or material, or in a way that violates State deceptive and unfair trade practices;
(5) publish the keywords, search terms, and other means that are used to censor, selectively suspend, or implement an anonymous user ban;
(6) publish the keywords, search terms, and other means that are used for post prioritization;
(7) provide a mechanism for users who purchase a social media advertisement to request a list of other users' unique identification codes or similar identifying information who were provided or shown the requesting user's content or post upon request;
(8) categorize algorithms used for post prioritization, post suppression, and anonymous user banning and allow users to opt-out of post prioritization and post suppression to allow sequential or chronological posts and content;
(9) provide users with notice on the use of and subsequent changes to algorithms used for post prioritization, post suppression, anonymous user bans, and the content of paragraphs (5) and (6) of this subsection and reoffer annually the opt-out opportunity provided in paragraph (8) of this subsection;
(10) allow a user who has been selectively suspended to access or retrieve all of the user's information, content, material, and data from the social media platform for at least 60 days following the date of being selectively suspended;
(11) provide journalistic enterprises with a method to identify themselves as such; and
(12) not knowingly take any action to censor, selectively suspend, or implement an anonymous user ban against a journalistic enterprise based on the content of its publication or broadcast.
b. Post prioritization of certain journalistic enterprise content based on payments to the social media platform by such journalistic enterprise is not a violation of this section.
4. a. Any social media company that operates within this State that uses post suppression shall not censor a user's content or material on the social media platform without providing notification to the user who posted or attempted to post the content or material. The notification shall:
(1) be in writing;
(2) be delivered by electronic mail or direct electronic notification to the user within 30 days of censoring the user's content;
(3) include a thorough rationale explaining why the social media company has censored the user's content or material; and
(4) include a precise and thorough explanation of how the social media company became aware of the censored content or material, including a thorough explanation of the algorithms used, if any, to identify the user's content or material as objectionable.
b. Notwithstanding any other provisions of P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill), a social media company shall not be required to notify a user pursuant to subsection a. of this section if the censored content or material is obscene.
5. A social media company that operates within this State shall not require users, in order to access the user's account on the social media platform, to interact with a political advertisement directing the user to contact a State or federal legislator or to contact a public official.
6. In addition to the relief provided under the New Jersey consumer fraud act, P.L.1960, c.39 (C.56:8-1 et seq.), a user may bring a private cause of action against a social media company for a violation of paragraphs (2) or (4), or both, of subsection a. of section 3 of P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill). In a private cause of action brought against a social media company pursuant to this section, the court may award all of the following damages to the user:
a. Up to $100,000 in statutory damages per proven claim;
b. Actual damages;
c. Punitive damages if aggravating factors are present;
d. Other forms of equitable relief; and
e. Costs and reasonable attorney fees, if the user was selectively suspended in violation of paragraph (2) of subsection a. of section 3 of P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill).
7. In an investigation by the Office of the Attorney General into acts of post suppression or anonymous user banning by a social media company, the office has the power to subpoena the social media company for any algorithm related to post suppression or anonymous user banning and any related documentation used within the previous 24 months related to post suppression or anonymous user banning.
8. Nothing in P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill) shall be construed to require the disclosure of any trade secret or abrogate any work product protection.
9. a. Nothing in P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill) shall be construed to interfere with any duty imposed on a social media company by State or federal law, rule, or regulation, including, but not limited to, any duty to preserve evidence.
b. P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill) shall not be construed to affect, waive, or supersede any federal law, rule, or regulation governing social media companies. In the event of a conflict between the provisions of P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill) and a federal law, rule, or regulation, the applicable federal law, rule, or regulation shall prevail.
c. The provisions of P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill) shall be severable, and if any of its provisions shall be held to be unconstitutional, the decision of the court shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions of P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill).
10. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill establishes requirements for social media companies concerning content moderation practices and establishes a cause of action against social media companies using content moderation practices on their platforms. This bill provides that it is an unlawful practice and violation of the New Jersey consumer fraud act for a social media company to fail to comply with the requirements set forth in the bill. Among other requirements enumerated in the bill, a social media company is to publish the standards it uses or has used for determining how to censor, "selectively suspend," or implement an "anonymous user ban," as these terms are defined in the bill, and apply censorship, selective suspensions, and anonymous user banning standards in a consistent manner among its users on the platform.
Additionally, social media companies are prohibited from knowingly taking any action to censor, selectively suspend, or implement an anonymous user ban against a journalistic enterprise based on the content of its publication or broadcast.
Under this bill, a social media company that uses post suppression is prohibited from censoring a user's content or material on the social media platform without providing notification, as described in the bill, to the user who posted or attempted to post the content or material, unless the content or material is obscene.
Additionally, a social media company is prohibited from requiring users to interact with a political advertisement directing the user to contact a State or federal legislator or public official before the social media company allows the user to access the user's account.
This bill also provides that a user may bring a private cause of action against a social media company for certain violations under the bill.
Nothing in this bill is to require disclosure of any trade secret or abrogate any work product protection.
Nothing in this bill is to supersede federal law, or to interfere with any existing duty of a social media company, including any duty to preserve evidence.
