EHF20565 S.L.C. 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. ll To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to provide accountability for bad actors who abuse the Good Samaritan protections provided under that Act, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES llllllllll Mr. HAWLEY (for himself, Mr. RUBIO, Mr. COTTON, Mr. BRAUN, and Mrs. LOEFFLER) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on llllllllll A BILL To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to provide accountability for bad actors who abuse the Good Samaritan protections provided under that Act, and for other purposes. 1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 3 4 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Limiting Section 230 5 Immunity to Good Samaritans Act’’. 6 7 SEC. 2. SCOPE OF PROTECTION. Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 8 U.S.C. 230) is amended— B4V 3H 59R EHF20565 S.L.C. 2 1 (1) in subsection (c)— 2 (A) in paragraph (1)— 3 (i) by striking ‘‘No provider’’ and in- 4 serting the following: 5 ‘‘(A) IN 6 GENERAL.—Subject to subpara- graph (B), no provider’’; and 7 (ii) by adding at the end the fol- 8 lowing: 9 ‘‘(B) CONDITION.—With respect to an 10 edge provider, subparagraph (A) shall only 11 apply if the provider adopts and maintains writ- 12 ten terms of service that— 13 ‘‘(i) take precedence over other such 14 terms in case of any conflict between the 15 sets of terms; 16 ‘‘(ii) describe any policies of the edge 17 provider relating to restricting access to or 18 availability of material; and 19 ‘‘(iii) promise that the edge provider 20 shall— 21 ‘‘(I) design and operate the pro- 22 vided service in good faith; and 23 ‘‘(II) if the provider is found, in 24 a civil action brought in Federal or 25 State court, or by an arbitrator, to B4V 3H 59R EHF20565 S.L.C. 3 1 breach the promise made under sub- 2 clause (I) with respect to a claimant 3 user, pay that user— 4 ‘‘(aa) the greater of— 5 ‘‘(AA) damages of not 6 less than $5,000; or 7 ‘‘(BB) actual damages; 8 and 9 ‘‘(bb) with respect to litiga- 10 tion or arbitration by the user to 11 enforce the promise— 12 ‘‘(AA) a reasonable at- 13 torney’s fee; and 14 ‘‘(BB) costs and other 15 expenses described in sec- 16 tions 1821 and 1920 of title 17 28, United States Code (or, 18 in the case of an action 19 brought in State court or 20 through 21 similar costs and other ex- 22 penses).’’; and 23 arbitration, (B) by adding at the end the following: B4V 3H 59R any EHF20565 S.L.C. 4 1 ‘‘(3) GOOD FAITH.—For the purposes of this 2 subsection, a provider of an interactive computer 3 service— 4 ‘‘(A) acts in good faith if the provider acts 5 with an honest belief and purpose, observes fair 6 dealing standards, and acts without fraudulent 7 intent; and 8 9 ‘‘(B) does not act in good faith if the provider takes an action that includes— 10 ‘‘(i) the intentionally selective enforce- 11 ment of the terms of service of the inter- 12 active computer service, including the in- 13 tentionally selective enforcement of policies 14 of the provider relating to restricting ac- 15 cess to or availability of material; 16 ‘‘(ii) enforcing the terms of service of 17 the interactive computer service, including 18 enforcing policies of the provider to restrict 19 access to or availability of material, 20 against a user by employing an algorithm 21 that selectively enforces those terms, if the 22 provider knows, or acts in reckless dis- 23 regard of the fact, that the algorithm se- 24 lectively enforces those terms; B4V 3H 59R EHF20565 S.L.C. 5 1 ‘‘(iii) the intentional failure to honor a 2 public or private promise made by, or on 3 behalf of, the provider; or 4 ‘‘(iv) any other intentional action 5 taken by the provider without an honest 6 belief and purpose, without observing fair 7 dealing standards, or with fraudulent in- 8 tent.’’; 9 10 11 (2) in subsection (e), by adding at the end the following: ‘‘(6) NO EFFECT ON LEGAL PROMISES.—Noth- 12 ing in this section shall be construed to impair or 13 limit any claim for breach of contract, promissory 14 estoppel, or breach of a duty of good faith.’’; and 15 16 17 18 (3) in subsection (f), by adding at the end the following: ‘‘(5) EDGE PROVIDER.—The term ‘edge pro- vider’— 19 ‘‘(A) means an entity that— 20 ‘‘(i) provides an interactive computer 21 service— 22 ‘‘(I) through a website, online ap- 23 plication, or mobile application (in- 24 cluding a single interactive computer B4V 3H 59R EHF20565 S.L.C. 6 1 service that is provided through more 2 than 1 such website or application); 3 ‘‘(II) through which information 4 provided by another information con- 5 tent provider is distributed; and 6 ‘‘(III) that, in any month during 7 the most recently completed 12-month 8 period— 9 ‘‘(aa) more than 30,000,000 10 users 11 accessed, without regard to the 12 means 13 accessed the service; or 14 in the by ‘‘(bb) United which the States users more than 15 300,000,000 16 accessed, without regard to the 17 means 18 accessed the service; and 19 by users worldwide which the users ‘‘(ii) during the most recently com- 20 pleted 21 $1,500,000,000 in global revenue; and 22 ‘‘(B) does not include an organization de- 23 scribed in section 501(c) of the Internal Rev- 24 enue Code of 1986 that is exempt from taxation 25 under section 501(a) of such Code.’’. B4V 3H 59R taxable year, had more than