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.

If a user, the attorney general, or a district attorney prevails in a civil action, the court may award all of the following relief:

1. Any economic and noneconomic damages suffered by the user, which are awarded to the user regardless of whether the user participated in the action.

2. Statutory damages in an amount of not less than $75,000 for each intentional act described in items 1 to 8 above. Statutory damages related to intentional censorship are awarded to the state if the attorney general or a district attorney is a prevailing party. Statutory damages related to other intentional acts are awarded to the user if a prevailing party.

3. If aggravating factors are present, punitive damages. Any punitive damages are awarded to the state if the attorney general or a district attorney is a prevailing party.

4. Injunctive relief.

Regardless of who prevails in the civil action, the court may award the prevailing party costs and reasonable attorney fees but may not assess costs or attorney fees against the state.

The bill creates certain exceptions to liability for owners and operators of social media websites. For example, an owner or operator is not liable for actions in relation to speech that calls for immediate acts of violence, that is obscene or pornographic in nature, or that entices criminal conduct.

For further information see the state fiscal estimate, which will be printed as an appendix to this bill.

AB895,,4 The people of the state of Wisconsin, represented in senate and assembly, do enact as follows:

AB895,1 Section 1. 895.053 of the statutes is created to read:

AB895,,6 895.053 Social media censorship; action for. (1) Definitions. In this section:

AB895,,7 (a) “Algorithm” means a set of instructions designed to perform a specific task.

AB895,,8 (b) “Deplatform” means to delete or ban a user from a social media website for more than 60 days.

AB895,,9 (c) “Hate speech” means speech concerning content that a person finds offensive on the basis of the person’s personal moral code.

AB895,,10 (d) “Obscene” means that all of the following apply to content:

AB895,,11 1. An average individual, applying contemporary community standards, would find that the content, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest.

AB895,,12 2. The content depicts or describes sexual conduct in a patently offensive way.

AB895,,13 3. The content, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.

AB895,,14 (e) “Political speech” means speech relating to the state, government, body politic, or public administration as it relates to governmental policy or policy making. “Political speech” includes speech by the government or a candidate for office and any discussion of social issues.

AB895,,15 (f) “Religious speech” means 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.

AB895,,16 (g) “Shadow ban” means to limit or eliminate the exposure of a user, or content or material posted by a user, to other users of the social media website through any means, regardless of whether the action is determined by an individual or an algorithm, and regardless of whether the action is readily apparent to a user. “Shadow ban” does not include any action towards content or material that is viewed by a user if the action is taken at the request of that user.

AB895,,17 (h) “Social media website” means a website or application that enables users to communicate with each other by posting information, comments, messages, or images and to which all of the following apply:

AB895,,18 1. The website or application is available to the public.

AB895,,19 2. The website or application has more than 150 million users.

AB895,,20 (i) “User” means a person that subscribes to or has an account with a social media website and to whom any of the following applies:

AB895,,21 1. The person is an individual who is a U.S. citizen and has resided in this state for at least 28 consecutive days before the deletion, censoring, disfavoring, or censuring that is the basis of the person’s cause of action under sub. (2).

AB895,,22 2. The person is not an individual and the person has its commercial domicile, as defined in s. 71.22 (1g), in this state.