AB895,,1 2023 ASSEMBLY BILL 895

January 4, 2024 - Introduced by Representatives Sortwell, Behnke, Goeben, Murphy, Schmidt and Schraa. Referred to Committee on Judiciary.

AB895,,2 An Act to create 895.053 of the statutes; relating to: creating a civil cause of action against the owner or operator of a social media website that restricts religious or political speech.

AB895,,3 Analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau

This bill creates a civil cause of action against the owner or operator of a social media website that is available to the public and that has more than 150 million users, if the owner or operator of the website intentionally does any of the following:

1. Deletes or censors, or uses an algorithm to delete, censor, disfavor, or censure, the religious speech or political speech of a person that is a resident of this state, as defined in the bill, and that subscribes to or has an account with the social media website (a user). The bill defines “religious speech” as “speech relating to a set of unproven answers, truth claims, faith-based assumptions, and naked assertions that attempt to explain such greater questions as how the world was created, what constitutes right and wrong actions by individuals, and what happens after death.” The bill defines “political speech” as “speech relating to the state, government, body politic, or public administration as it relates to governmental policy or policy making,” including speech by the government or a candidate for office and any discussion of social issues.

2. Fails to notify a user that the user’s religious speech or political speech has been deleted, censored, disfavored, or censured, or that the user has been deplatformed. The bill defines “deplatforming” as deleting or banning a user from the social media website for more than 60 days.

3. Fails to allow a user who has been deplatformed to access or retrieve all of the user’s information, content, material, and data for at least 60 days after being deplatformed.

4. Fails to publish the standards, including detailed definitions, that it uses or has used for determining how to delete, censor, disfavor, and censure speech on the social media website and how to deplatform and shadow ban users on the social media website. The bill defines “shadow banning” as limiting or eliminating the exposure of a user, or content posted by a user, to other users of the social media website.

5. Applies censorship, deplatforming, and shadow banning standards in a manner that is not consistent among its users on the social media website.

6. Fails to inform each user about any changes to the social media website’s user rules, terms, and agreements.

7. Makes changes to its user rules, terms, and agreements more than once every 180 days.