OLL20606 S.L.C. 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. ll To amend section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934 to require that providers and users of an interactive computer service meet certain standards to qualify for liability protections. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES llllllllll Mrs. LOEFFLER introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on llllllllll A BILL To amend section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934 to require that providers and users of an interactive computer service meet certain standards to qualify for liability protections. 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 ‘‘Stopping Big Tech’s 5 Censorship Act’’. 6 7 SEC. 2. SCOPE OF LIABILITY. Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 8 U.S.C. 230) is amended— 500 D8 Y8J OLL20606 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 GENERAL.—No provider’’; 6 (ii) in subparagraph (A), as so des- 7 ignated, by inserting after ‘‘interactive 8 computer service’’ the following: ‘‘that 9 takes reasonable steps to prevent or ad- 10 dress the unlawful use of the interactive 11 computer service or unlawful publication of 12 information on the interactive computer 13 service’’; and 14 (iii) by adding at the end the fol- 15 lowing: 16 ‘‘(B) DEFINITION.—For purposes of this 17 paragraph, the term ‘unlawful use of the inter- 18 active computer service or unlawful publication 19 of information on the interactive computer serv- 20 ice’ includes cyberstalking, sex trafficking, traf- 21 ficking in illegal products or activities, child 22 sexual exploitation, and any other activity relat- 23 ing to the use of, or publication of information 24 on, an interactive computer service that is oth- 25 erwise proscribed by Federal law.’’; 500 D8 Y8J OLL20606 S.L.C. 3 1 (B) in paragraph (2)— 2 (i) by redesignating subparagraphs 3 (A) and (B) as clauses (i) and (ii), respec- 4 tively, and adjusting the margins accord- 5 ingly; 6 (ii) in the matter preceding clause (i), 7 as so redesignated, by striking ‘‘No pro- 8 vider’’ and inserting the following: 9 ‘‘(A) IN 10 GENERAL.—Subject to subpara- graph (B), no provider’’; and 11 (iii) by adding at the end the fol- 12 lowing: 13 ‘‘(B) 14 MENTS.— 15 FIRST ‘‘(i) IN AMENDMENT GENERAL.—Subject REQUIRE- to clause 16 (ii), a provider or user of an interactive 17 computer service that takes action under 18 clause (i) of subparagraph (A) to restrict 19 access to or availability of constitutionally 20 protected material shall not be eligible for 21 the protection under that subparagraph 22 unless— 23 ‘‘(I) the action is taken in a view- 24 point-neutral manner; 500 D8 Y8J OLL20606 S.L.C. 4 1 ‘‘(II) the restriction limits only 2 the time, place, or manner in which 3 the material is available; and 4 ‘‘(III) there is a compelling rea- 5 son for restricting that access or 6 availability. 7 ‘‘(ii) NO PUNITIVE DAMAGES.—A 8 court that holds a provider or user of an 9 information computer service liable on ac- 10 count of action taken to restrict access to 11 or availability of material as described in 12 subparagraph (A)(i) because the provider 13 or user did not meet the requirements 14 under clause (i) of this subparagraph may 15 not award punitive damages against the 16 provider or user for taking that action.’’; 17 and 18 (C) by adding at the end the following: 19 20 ‘‘(3) NOTICE REQUIREMENTS.—To be eligible for protection under this subsection— 21 ‘‘(A) a provider of an interactive computer 22 service shall, in any terms of service or user 23 agreement produced by the provider, clearly ex- 24 plain the practices and procedures used by the 500 D8 Y8J OLL20606 S.L.C. 5 1 provider in restricting access to or availability 2 of any material; and 3 ‘‘(B) a provider or user of an interactive 4 computer service that decides to restrict access 5 to or availability of any material shall provide 6 a clear explanation of that decision to the infor- 7 mation content provider that created or devel- 8 oped the material. 9 ‘‘(4) BURDEN OF PROOF.—In any action or 10 proceeding in which a party asserts paragraph (1) or 11 (2) as a defense to liability, the party alleging liabil- 12 ity shall bear the burden of demonstrating that the 13 other party is not entitled to immunity under that 14 paragraph.’’; 15 16 17 (2) in subsection (e), by adding at the end the following: ‘‘(6) NO EFFECT ON FEDERAL CIVIL LIABIL- 18 ITY.—Nothing 19 impair or limit any civil enforcement action brought 20 by a Federal agency, office, or other establishment 21 arising from any violation of a Federal statute or 22 regulation.’’; and 23 24 in this section shall be construed to (3) in subsection (f), by adding at the end the following: 500 D8 Y8J OLL20606 S.L.C. 6 1 ‘‘(5) CONSTITUTIONALLY PROTECTED MATE- 2 RIAL.—The 3 rial’ means any material protected by a right under 4 the Constitution of the United States, regardless of 5 whether the right is otherwise enforceable against a 6 nongovernmental entity.’’. 500 D8 Y8J term ‘constitutionally protected mate-