103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2023 and 2024
HB3943

 

Introduced 2/17/2023, by Rep. Jenn Ladisch Douglass

 

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:
 
New Act

    Creates the Social Media Content Moderation Act. Provides that a social media company shall post terms of service for each social media platform owned or operated by the company in a manner reasonably designed to inform all users of the social media platform of the existence and contents of the terms of service. Provides that on a semiannual basis, a social media company shall submit to the Attorney General a terms of service report including specified information. Provides that a social media company that violates the provisions of the Act shall be liable for a civil penalty not to exceed $15,000 per violation per day. Effective immediately.


LRB103 30233 SPS 56661 b

 

 

A BILL FOR

 

HB3943LRB103 30233 SPS 56661 b

1    AN ACT concerning business.
 
2    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
3represented in the General Assembly:
 
4    Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Social
5Media Content Moderation Act.
 
6    Section 5. Definitions.
7    "Actioned" means a social media company, due to a
8suspected or confirmed violation of the terms of service, has
9taken some form of action, including, but not limited to,
10removal, demonetization, deprioritization, or banning, against
11the relevant user or relevant item of content.
12    "Content" means statements or comments made by users and
13media that are created, posted, shared, or otherwise
14interacted with by users on an Internet-based service or
15application. "Content" does not include media put on a service
16or application exclusively for the purpose of cloud storage,
17transmitting files, or file collaboration.
18    "Public or semi-public Internet-based service or
19application" does not include a service or application used to
20facilitate communication within a business or enterprise among
21employees or affiliates of the business or enterprise, as long
22as access to the service or application is restricted to
23employees or affiliates of the business or enterprise using

 

 

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1the service or application.
2    "Social media company" means a person or entity that owns
3or operates one or more social media platforms.
4    "Social media platform" means a public or semi-public
5Internet-based service or application that has users in this
6State and that meets the following criteria:
7        (1) a substantial function of the service or
8    application is to connect users in order to allow users to
9    interact socially with each other within the service or
10    application; and
11        (2) the service or application allows users to do all
12    of the following:
13            (A) construct a public or semi-public profile for
14        purposes of signing into and using the service or
15        application;
16            (B) populate a list of other users with whom an
17        individual shares a social connection within the
18        system; and
19            (C) create or post content viewable by other
20        users, including, but not limited to, on message
21        boards, in chat rooms, or through a landing page or
22        main feed that presents the user with content
23        generated by other users.
24    "Terms of service" means a policy or set of policies
25adopted by a social media company that specifies the user
26behavior and activities that are permitted on the

 

 

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1Internet-based service owned or operated by the social media
2company and the user behavior and activities that may subject
3the user or an item of content to being actioned.
 
4    Section 10. Terms of service requirements.
5    (a) A social media company shall post terms of service for
6each social media platform owned or operated by the company in
7a manner reasonably designed to inform all users of the social
8media platform of the existence and contents of the terms of
9service.
10    (b) The terms of service posted required by subsection (a)
11shall include all of the following:
12        (1) contact information for the purpose of allowing
13    users to ask the social media company questions about the
14    terms of service;
15        (2) a description of the process that users must
16    follow to flag content, groups, or other users that they
17    believe violate the terms of service, and the social media
18    company's commitments on response and resolution time; and
19        (3) a list of potential actions the social media
20    company may take against an item of content or a user,
21    including, but not limited to, removal, demonetization,
22    deprioritization, or banning.
 
23    Section 15. Report to the Attorney General.
24    (a) On a semiannual basis in accordance with subsection

 

 

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1(b), a social media company shall submit to the Attorney
2General a terms of service report. The terms of service report
3shall include, for each social media platform owned or
4operated by the company, all of the following:
5        (1) the current version of the terms of service of the
6    social media platform;
7        (2) if a social media company has filed its first
8    report, a complete and detailed description of any changes
9    to the terms of service since the previous report;
10        (3) a statement of whether the current version of the
11    terms of service defines each of the following categories
12    of content, and, if so, the definitions of those
13    categories, including any subcategories;
14            (A) hate speech or racism;
15            (B) extremism or radicalization;
16            (C) disinformation or misinformation;
17            (D) harassment; and
18            (E) foreign political interference;
19        (4) a detailed description of content moderation
20    practices used by the social media company for that
21    platform, including, but not limited to, all of the
22    following:
23            (A) any existing policies intended to address the
24        categories of content described in paragraph (3);
25            (B) how automated content moderation systems
26        enforce terms of service of the social media platform

 

 

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1        and when these systems involve human review;
2            (C) how the social media company responds to user
3        reports of violations of the terms of service;
4            (D) how the social media company would remove
5        individual pieces of content, users, or groups that
6        violate the terms of service, or take broader action
7        against individual users or against groups of users
8        that violate the terms of service; and
9            (E) the languages in which the social media
10        platform does not make terms of service available, but
11        does offer product features, including, but not
12        limited to, menus and prompts;
13        (5) information on content that was flagged by the
14    social media company as content belonging to any of the
15    categories described in paragraph (3), including all of
16    the following:
17            (A) the total number of flagged items of content;
18            (B) the total number of actioned items of content;
19            (C) the total number of actioned items of content
20        that resulted in action taken by the social media
21        company against the user or group of users responsible
22        for the content;
23            (D) the total number of actioned items of content
24        that were removed, demonetized, or deprioritized by
25        the social media company;
26            (E) the number of times actioned items of content

 

 

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1        were viewed by users;
2            (F) the number of times actioned items of content
3        were shared, and the number of users that viewed the
4        content before it was actioned; and
5            (G) the number of times users appealed social
6        media company actions taken on that platform and the
7        number of reversals of social media company actions on
8        appeal disaggregated by each type of action; and
9        (6) the information required by paragraph (5)
10    disaggregated into the following categories:
11            (A) the category of content, including any
12        relevant categories described in paragraph (3);
13            (B) the type of content, including, but not
14        limited to, posts, comments, messages, profiles of
15        users, or groups of users;
16            (C) the type of media of the content, including,
17        but not limited to, text, images, and videos;
18            (D) how the content was flagged, including, but
19        not limited to, by company employees or contractors,
20        by artificial intelligence software, by community
21        moderators, by civil society partners, and by users;
22        and
23            (E) how the content was actioned, including, but
24        not limited to, by company employees or contractors,
25        by artificial intelligence software, by community
26        moderators, by civil society partners, and by users.

 

 

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1    (b) A social media company shall electronically submit a
2semiannual terms of service report required by subsection (a),
3covering activity within the third and fourth quarters of the
4preceding calendar year, to the Attorney General no later than
5April 1 of each year, and shall electronically submit a
6semiannual terms of service report required by subsection (a),
7covering activity within the first and second quarters of the
8current calendar year, to the Attorney General no later than
9October 1 of each year.
10    (c) Notwithstanding subsection (b), a social media company
11shall electronically submit its first terms of service report
12as required by subsection (a), covering activity within the
13third quarter of 2023, to the Attorney General no later than
14January 1, 2024, and shall electronically submit its second
15terms of service report as required by subsection (a),
16covering activity within the fourth quarter of 2023, to the
17Attorney General no later than April 1, 2024. A social media
18platform shall submit its third report no later than October
191, 2024, in accordance with subsection (b).
20    (d) The Attorney General shall make all terms of service
21reports submitted under this Section available to the public
22in a searchable repository on its official Internet website.
 
23    Section 20. Violations; civil penalties.
24    (a) A social media company that violates the provisions of
25this Act shall be liable for a civil penalty not to exceed

 

 

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1$15,000 per violation per day, and may be enjoined in any court
2of competent jurisdiction.
3    (b) A social media company shall be considered in
4violation of the provisions of this Act for each day the social
5media company does any of the following:
6        (1) fails to post terms of service in accordance with
7    Section 10;
8        (2) fails to timely submit to the Attorney General a
9    report described in Section 15; or
10        (3) materially omits or misrepresents required
11    information in a report submitted as described in Section
12    15.
13    (c) In assessing the amount of a civil penalty as
14described in subsection (a), the court shall consider whether
15the social media company has made a reasonable, good faith
16attempt to comply with the provisions of this Act.
17    (d) Actions for relief under this Act shall be prosecuted
18exclusively in a court of competent jurisdiction by the
19Attorney General or by a city attorney of a city having a
20population greater than 750,000.
21    (e) If an action under this Section is brought by the
22Attorney General, 50% of the penalty collected shall be paid
23to the treasurer of the county in which the judgment was
24entered, and 50% of the penalty collected shall be deposited
25in the General Revenue Fund. If the action is brought by a city
26attorney, 50% of the penalty collected shall be paid to the

 

 

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1treasurer of the city in which the judgment was entered, and
250% to the treasurer of the county in which the judgment was
3entered.
 
4    Section 25. Relation to other laws.
5    (a) The duties and obligations imposed by this Act are
6cumulative to any other duties or obligations imposed under
7local, State, or federal law and shall not be construed to
8relieve any party from any duties or obligations imposed under
9law.
10    (b) The remedies or penalties provided by this Act are
11cumulative to each other and to any other remedies or
12penalties available under local, State, or federal law.
 
13    Section 30. Exceptions.
14    (a) This Act shall not apply to a social media company that
15generated less than $100,000,000 in gross revenue during the
16preceding calendar year.
17    (b) This Act shall not be construed to apply to an
18Internet-based service or application for which interactions
19between users are limited to direct messages, commercial
20transactions, consumer reviews of products, sellers, services,
21events, or places.
 
22    Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon
23becoming law.