September 24, 2021 - Introduced by Senators Roth, Stroebel, Felzkowski and
Darling, cosponsored by Representatives Sortwell, Cabral-Guevara,
Allen, Armstrong, Brandtjen, Edming, Horlacher, Knodl and Kuglitsch.
Referred to Committee on Utilities, Technology and Telecommunications.

SB583,1,3 1An Act to create 895.053 of the statutes; relating to: creating a civil cause of
2action against the owner or operator of a social media Internet site that restricts
3religious or political speech.

This bill creates a civil cause of action against the owner or operator of a social
media Internet site that is available to the public and that has more than 150 million
users, if the owner or operator of the site 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 Internet site (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 Internet site 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 Internet site and how to deplatform and shadow ban users on the social
media Internet site. 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
Internet site.

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

6. Fails to inform each user about any changes to the social media Internet site's
user rules, terms, and agreements.

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

8. Fails to provide a mechanism for a user to request the number of other users
who were provided or shown the user's content or posts and provide that number to
the user upon request.

The bill provides that it is not a defense to such an action that an owner or
operator of the social media Internet site considered a user's religious speech or
political speech to be related to content that is offensive on the basis of the owner's
or operator's personal moral code.

In addition to a user's cause of action, the bill authorizes the attorney general
or any district attorney to bring a civil cause of action on behalf of the user or on
behalf of the state, or both, with respect to an owner's or operator's intentional
censorship of a user's religious speech or political speech. Each party may bring a
cause of action independently from or in conjunction with one another.