AB 591

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.