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.....................................................................
(Original Signature of Member)

H. R. ll

116TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION

To amend section 230(c) of the Communications Act of 1934 to prevent
immunity for interactive computer services for certain claims, and for
other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Mr. MALINOWSKI introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on llllllllllllll

A BILL
To amend section 230(c) of the Communications Act of
1934 to prevent immunity for interactive computer services for certain claims, 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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4

This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Protecting Americans

5 from Dangerous Algorithms Act’’.

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2
1

SEC. 2. AMENDMENT.

2

Section 230(c) of the Communications Act of 1934

3 (47 U.S.C. 230(c)) is amended by adding at the end the
4 following new paragraph:
5

‘‘(3) ALGORITHMIC

6

‘‘(A) IN

GENERAL.—For

purposes of para-

7

graph (1), an interactive computer service shall

8

be considered to be an information content pro-

9

vider and the protection under such paragraph

10

shall not apply for any claim described in sub-

11

paragraph (B).

12

‘‘(B) CONDITIONS

13

‘‘(i) IN

14

FOR CLAIM.—

GENERAL.—A

claim in this

subparagraph requires the following:

15

‘‘(I) A claim in a civil action is

16

brought under—

17

‘‘(aa) section 1980 or 1981

18

of the Revised Statutes (42

19

U.S.C. 1985; 42 U.S.C. 1986);

20

or

21

‘‘(bb) section 2333 of title

22

18, United States Code.

23

‘‘(II)

Except

as

provided

in

24

clause (ii), the claim involves a case in

25

which the interactive computer service

26

used an algorithm, model, or other

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AMPLIFICATION.—

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3
1

computational process to rank, order,

2

promote,

3

similarly alter the delivery or display

4

of information (including any text,

5

image, audio, or video post, page,

6

group, account, or affiliation) pro-

7

vided to a user of the service if the in-

8

formation is directly relevant to the

9

claim.

10

‘‘(ii)

amplify,

or

EXCEPTION.—Notwithstanding

11

clause (i)(II), the requirement is not met

12

if—

13

‘‘(I) the information delivery or

14

display is ranked, ordered, promoted,

15

recommended, amplified, or similarly

16

altered in a way that is obvious, un-

17

derstandable, and transparent to a

18

reasonable user based only on the de-

19

livery or display of the information

20

(without the need to reference the

21

terms of service or any other agree-

22

ment),

23

tion—

24

sorting

informa-

verse chronologically;

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including

‘‘(aa) chronologically or re-

25

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recommend,

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4
1

‘‘(bb) by average user rating

2

or number of user reviews;

3

‘‘(cc) alphabetically; and

4

‘‘(dd) randomly; or

5

‘‘(II) the algorithm, model, or

6

other computational process is used

7

for information a user specifically

8

searches for.

9

‘‘(C) SMALL

10

paragraph shall not apply to an interactive

11

computer service that (in combination with each

12

subsidiary and affiliate of the service) has

13

50,000,000 or fewer unique monthly visitors or

14

users for a majority of the preceding 12

15

months.’’.

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BUSINESS EXCEPTION.—This

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