Ramseyer Draft Legislative Reforms to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act
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(c)
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PROTECTION FOR “GOOD SAMARITAN” BLOCKING AND SCREENING OF OFFENSIVE
MATERIAL.

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(1)

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TREATMENT OF PUBLISHER OR SPEAKER.
(A)

No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as
the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another
information content provider.

(B)

Subparagraph (A) shall not apply to any decision, agreement, or action by
a provider or user of an interactive computer service to restrict access to or
availability of material provided by another information content
provider. Any applicable immunity for such conduct shall be provided
solely by Paragraph (2) of this subsection.

(C)

For purposes of Subparagraph (A), no provider or user of an interactive
computer service shall be deemed a publisher or speaker for all other
information on its service provided by another information content
provider solely on account of actions voluntarily taken in good faith to
restrict access to or availability of specific material that the provider or
user has an objective reasonable belief violates its terms of service or use.

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(2)
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CIVIL LIABILITY.
No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be held liable on
account of—

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(A)

any action voluntarily taken in good faith to restrict access to or
availability of material that the provider or user has an objectively
reasonable belief is obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent,
promoting terrorism or violent extremism, harassing, promoting self-harm,
or unlawful, or otherwise objectionable, whether or not such material is
constitutionally protected; or

(B)

any action taken to enable or make available to information content
providers or others the technical means to restrict access to material
described in Subparagraph (A). paragraph (1).

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(d)

EXCLUSION FROM “GOOD SAMARITAN” IMMUNITY.
(1) “BAD SAMARITAN” CARVE-OUT. Subsection (c)(1) shall not apply in any criminal
prosecution under State law or any State or Federal civil action brought against an
interactive computer service provider if, at the time of the facts giving rise to the
prosecution or action, the service provider acted purposefully with the conscious
object to promote, solicit, or facilitate material or activity by another information

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 content provider that the service provider knew or had reason to believe would violate
Federal criminal law, if knowingly disseminated or engaged in.

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(2) CARVE-OUT FOR ACTUAL NOTICE OF FEDERAL CRIMINAL MATERIAL.
Subsection (c)(1) shall not apply in a criminal prosecution under State law or any
state or Federal civil action brought against an interactive computer service provider
if—
(A)
such prosecution or action arises out of a specific instance of material or
activity on the service that would, if knowingly disseminated or engaged
in, violate Federal criminal law;

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(B)

the provider had actual notice of that material’s or activity’s presence on
the service and its illegality; and

(C)

the provider failed to do any of the following:

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(i)

expeditiously remove, restrict access to or availability of, or
prevent dissemination of the specific instance of material and take
reasonable steps to remove, restrict access to or availability of, or
prevent dissemination of the material across the service;

(ii)

thereafter report the material or activity to law enforcement when
required by law or as otherwise necessary to prevent imminent
harm; or

(iii)

preserve evidence related to the material or activity for at least 1
year.

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(3) JUDICIAL-DECISION CARVE-OUT. Subsections (c)(1) and (2) shall not apply in any
criminal prosecution or civil action arising from the failure of an interactive computer
service provider to remove, restrict access or availability to, or prevent dissemination
of material within a reasonable time after receiving notice of a final judgment from a
court in the United States indicating that such material or activity is defamatory under
State law or unlawful in any respect. However, no interactive computer service
provider shall be held liable for removing, restricting access to, or preventing
dissemination of material in response to receiving such notice.

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(4) NOTICE MECHANISM REQUIREMENT. An interactive computer service provider shall
make available to the public, without expense, an easily accessible and apparent
mechanism for notifying the provider of defamatory or unlawful material or activity
as described in Subsections (d)(2) and (3). An interactive computer service provider
shall not be entitled to assert immunity under Subsection (c)(1) if it designs or
operates its service to avoid receiving actual notice of Federal criminal material on its
service or the ability to comply with the requirements under Subsection (d)(2)(C).

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(d)(e) OBLIGATIONS OF INTERACTIVE COMPUTER SERVICE.
A provider of interactive computer service shall, at the time of entering an agreement
with a customer for the provision of interactive computer service and in a manner deemed
appropriate by the provider, notify such customer that parental control protections (such
as computer hardware, software, or filtering services) are commercially available that
may assist the customer in limiting access to material that is harmful to minors. Such
notice shall identify, or provide the customer with access to information identifying,
current providers of such protections.
(e)(f) EFFECT ON OTHER LAWS.

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(1)

NO EFFECT ON CRIMINAL LAW OR FEDERAL CIVIL ENFORCEMENT.
Nothing in this section shall be construed to impair the enforcement of
section 223 or 231 of this Act, chapter 71 (relating to obscenity) or 110 (relating
to sexual exploitation of children) of title 18, United States Code, or any other
Federal criminal statute. Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent,
impair, or limit the enforcement by the United States, or any agency thereof, of
any civil Federal statute or regulation.

(2)

NO EFFECT ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW.
Nothing in this section shall be construed to limit or expand any law pertaining to
intellectual property.

(3)

STATE LAW.
Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent any State from enforcing any
State law that is consistent with this section. No cause of action may be brought,
and no liability may be imposed, under any state or local law that is inconsistent
with this section.

(4)

NO EFFECT ON COMMUNICATIONS PRIVACY LAW.
Nothing in this section shall be construed to limit the application of the Electronic
Communications Privacy Act of 1986, or any of the amendments made by such
Act, or any similar State law.

(5)

NO EFFECT ON SEX TRAFFICKING LAW.
Nothing in this section (other than subsection (c)(2)(A)) shall be construed to
impair or limit—

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(A)

any claim in a civil action brought under section 1595 of title 18, United
States Code, if the conduct underlying the claim constitutes a violation of
section 1591 of that title;

(B)

any charge in a criminal prosecution brought under State law if the
conduct underlying the charge would constitute a violation of section 1591
of title 18, United States Code; or

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 (C)
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any charge in a criminal prosecution brought under State law if the
conduct underlying the charge would constitute a violation of section
2421A of title 18, United States Code, and promotion or facilitation of
prostitution is illegal in the jurisdiction where the defendant’s promotion
or facilitation of prostitution was targeted.

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(6)

NO EFFECT ON ANTI-TERRORISM LAW. Nothing in this section (other than
subsection (c)(2)(A)) shall be construed to prevent, impair, or limit any claim in a
civil action brought under section 2333 of title 18, United States Code.

(7)

NO EFFECT ON CHILD SEX ABUSE LAWS. Nothing in this section (other than
subsection (c)(2)(A)) shall be construed to prevent, impair, or limit any civil
action brought under section 2255 of title 18, United States Code, or under State
law, if the conduct underlying the claim would constitute a violation of the
statutes referenced in section 2255(a).

(8)

NO EFFECT ON CYBER-STALKING LAWS. Nothing in this section (other than
subsection (c)(2)(A)) shall be construed to prevent, impair, or limit any civil
action relating to harm suffered from conduct that would constitute a violation of
section 2261A(2) of title 18, United States Code.

(9)

NO EFFECT ON ANTITRUST LAWS. Nothing in this section shall be construed to
prevent, impair, or limit any civil action brought under the Federal antitrust laws.

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(f)(g) DEFINITIONS.
As used in this section:

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(1)

INTERNET.
The term “Internet” means the international computer network of both Federal
and non-Federal interoperable packet switched data networks.

(2)

INTERACTIVE COMPUTER SERVICE.
The term “interactive computer service” means any information service, system,
or access software provider that provides or enables computer access by multiple
users to a computer server, including specifically a service or system that provides
access to the Internet and such systems operated or services offered by libraries or
educational institutions.

(3)

INFORMATION CONTENT PROVIDER.
The term “information content provider” means any person or entity that is
responsible, in whole or in part, for the creation or development of information
provided through the Internet or any other interactive computer service. Being
responsible in whole or in part for the creation or development of information
includes, but is not limited to, instances in which a person or entity solicits,

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 comments upon, funds, or affirmatively and substantively contributes to,
modifies, or alters information provided by another person or entity.

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(4)

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ACCESS SOFTWARE PROVIDER.
The term “access software provider” means a provider of software (including
client or server software), or enabling tools that do any one or more of the
following:

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(A)
(B)
(C)

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(5)

filter, screen, allow, or disallow content;
pick, choose, analyze, or digest content; or
transmit, receive, display, forward, cache, search, subset, organize,
reorganize, or translate content.

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GOOD FAITH.
To restrict access to or availability of specific material “in good faith,” an
interactive computer service provider must—

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(A)

have publicly available terms of service or use that state plainly and with
particularity the criteria the service provider employs in its contentmoderation practices;

(B)

restrict access to or availability of material consistent with those terms of
service or use and with any official representations or disclosures
regarding the service provider’s content-moderation practices;

(C)

not restrict access to or availability of material on deceptive or pretextual
grounds, or apply its terms of service or use to restrict access to or
availability of material that is similarly situated to material that the
provider intentionally declines to restrict; and

(D)

supply the provider of the material with timely notice describing with
particularity the provider’s reasonable factual basis for the restriction of
access and a meaningful opportunity to respond, unless a law enforcement
agency has asked that such notice not be made, or a provider reasonably
believes that the material relates to terrorism or other criminal activity, or
that such notice would risk imminent harm to others.

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