EHF20717

S.L.C.

116TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION

S. ll

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to stop granting immunity subsidies to companies that engage in behavioral advertising, and for other
purposes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
Mr. HAWLEY

llllllllll
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 stop granting
immunity subsidies to companies that engage in behavioral advertising, 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 ‘‘Behavioral Advertising

5 Decisions Are Downgrading Services Act’’ or the ‘‘BAD
6 ADS Act’’.

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1
2

SEC. 2. LIMITATION ON IMMUNITY.

(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 230(c) of the Communica-

3 tions Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 230(c)) is amended by add4 ing at the end the following:
5

‘‘(3) LIMITATION

6

ON PROTECTION.—

‘‘(A) DEFINITIONS.—In this paragraph—

7

‘‘(i) the term ‘advertisement server’

8

means a person that serves or delivers ad-

9

vertisements to a user of a website, online

10

service, online application, or mobile appli-

11

cation;

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‘‘(ii)

13

tising’—

the

term

‘behavioral

adver-

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‘‘(I) means a form of advertising

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in which an advertisement is displayed

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to a user of an interactive computer

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service based on—

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‘‘(aa) the personal traits of

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the user;

20

‘‘(bb) previous location in-

21

formation with respect to the

22

user;

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‘‘(cc) personal information

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from a profile about the user

25

that is created for the purpose of

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selling advertisements; or
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‘‘(dd) the previous online or

2

offline behavior of the user; and

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‘‘(II) does not include contextual

4

advertising, such as advertising that is

5

directed to a user based on—

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‘‘(aa) the content of the

7

website, online service, online ap-

8

plication, or mobile application to

9

which the user is connected;

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‘‘(bb) the location of the

11

user, as of the time at which the

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advertising is directed to the

13

user; or

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‘‘(cc) the search terms that

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the user applied to arrive at the

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website, service, or application to

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which the user is connected; and

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‘‘(iii) the term ‘covered provider’—

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‘‘(I) means an entity that—

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‘‘(aa) provides an interactive

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computer service—

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‘‘(AA)

through

a

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website, online application,

24

or mobile application (in-

25

cluding a single interactive

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computer service that is pro-

2

vided through more than 1

3

such website or application);

4

‘‘(BB) through which

5

information provided by an-

6

other

7

provider is distributed; and

8

information

‘‘(CC)

that,

content

in

any

9

month during the most re-

10

cently completed 12-month

11

period,

more

12

30,000,000

users

13

United States (or more than

14

300,000,000

15

wide) accessed, without re-

16

gard to the means by which

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the users accessed the serv-

18

ice; and

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‘‘(bb) during the most re-

20

cently completed taxable year,

21

had more than $1,500,000,000 in

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global revenue; and

23

‘‘(II) does not include an organi-

24

zation described in section 501(c) of

25

the Internal Revenue Code of 1986

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users

than
in

the

world-

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that is exempt from taxation under

2

section 501(a) of such Code.

3

‘‘(B)

APPLICABILITY.—The

protections

4

provided under paragraphs (1) and (2) shall not

5

apply with respect to a covered provider for any

6

claim arising during the 30-day period begin-

7

ning on the date on which the covered pro-

8

vider—

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‘‘(i) displays behavioral advertising to

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a user of the interactive computer service

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described in subparagraph (A)(iii)(I)(aa)

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provided by the covered provider; or

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‘‘(ii) provides data regarding a user of

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the interactive computer service described

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in clause (i) to another person knowing

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that the other person will use that data to

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create or display behavioral advertising.

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‘‘(C) LIABILITY

OF ADVERTISEMENT SERV-

19

ERS IN PLACE OF COVERED PROVIDERS.—An

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advertisement server shall be held liable for any

21

claim brought against a covered provider be-

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cause of the application of subparagraph (B) if,

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after the covered provider directs the advertise-

24

ment server not to serve or deliver behavioral

25

advertising to users of the interactive computer

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service described in subparagraph (A)(iii)(I)(aa)

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provided by the covered provider (or if the ad-

3

vertisement server fails to provide reasonably

4

accessible means to receive that direction from

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the covered provider), the covered provider un-

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knowingly takes the action described in sub-

7

paragraph (B)(i) because of an action taken by

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the advertisement server, including the failure

9

of the advertisement server to provide the cov-

10

ered provider with a conspicuous disclosure re-

11

garding the category of advertisements to be

12

displayed.’’.

13

(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—This section, and the amend-

14 ments made by this section, shall take effect on the date
15 that is 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act.

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