House Democrats will introduce legislation Friday to give the Federal Trade Commission authority to hold social media companies accountable for unfair content moderation practices. The bill marks one of the first attempts by Democrats to crack down on platforms such as Facebook and YouTube for setting and implementing rules in an inconsistent manner.
The bill, written by Democratic Reps. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois and Kathy Castor of Florida, would amend Section 230 of the Communications and Decency Act of 1996, the controversial law that gives online platforms legal immunity for third-party content.
The Online Consumer Protection Act would change the section to clarify that the FTC has the power to regulate and enforce Big Tech companies’ terms of service.
“It would be an unfair and deceptive trade practice under the FTC if the companies did not follow their own terms of service,” Schakowsky said in an interview with Bloomberg Government. “It makes it very clear that Section 230 does not in any way impact the authority of the FTC to hold them accountable.”
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The legislation would allow users to sue social media companies if they violate their terms of service or content moderation rules.
For example, the bill could allow users to sue a platform if it censored their content but allowed others to post similar content.
The bill would also require online platforms to have transparent content moderation rules and consumer protection policies so users have clarity on what kind of content they can and can’t be penalized for.
For the past few months, states have been taking the lead on legislation that would create fair and clear content moderation rules online, a contentious issue that has created tension between Democrats and Republicans nationwide.
Congress is also debating multiple bills to overhaul Section 230, but there have been very few bipartisan bills introduced to address the issue.
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Most bills addressing content moderation from Democrats have focused on problems related to misinformation and disinformation, while Republicans’ legislation on the issue has been focused on allegations of anti-conservative bias and unfair censorship.
