SB 525

This bill creates requirements and prohibitions for social media platforms in

the regulation of users and user content. The bill defines “social media platform” as

an Internet site or Internet-based software application, a primary purpose of which,

from the perspective of a user, is to allow users to create personalized pages,

accounts, profiles, or handles for the purpose of sharing information and content and

communicating with other users and the public. A “social media platform” is limited

to a platform that does business in this state and that either has annual gross

revenues of more than $100,000,000, or that has at least 20,000 global users who use

the social media platform per month.

The bill prohibits a social media platform from using post prioritization

(prioritizing certain content ahead of, below, or in a more or less prominent position

than others in a newsfeed, feed, view, or search results) on content or material posted

by or about a candidate for state or local office or an elected official who holds a state,

local, or national office. The bill also prohibits a social media platform from

knowingly censoring, deplatforming (deleting or banning from the social media

platform for more than 60 days), or shadow banning (limiting or eliminating the

exposure of a user, or content posted by a user, to other users of the social media

platform) a candidate for state or local office or an elected official who holds a state,

local, or national office. This prohibition applies only to official pages, accounts,

profiles, or handles relating to a candidate's campaign or an elected official's office

and does not apply to any personal pages, accounts, profiles, or handles. Nor does

the prohibition apply to post prioritization that is based on payments to the social

media platform by the affected candidate or elected official or by a third party. The

bill requires a social media platform to provide users with a method to identify

themselves as candidates or elected officials. The bill also provides that the

prohibition on censorship does not apply to content or material that is obscene or that

constitutes a credible threat to another person. In addition, the bill provides that an

action by a social media platform employee creates a rebuttable presumption that

the social media platform acted knowingly.

Under the bill, a social media platform must notify a user if the platform

knowingly censors the user's content or knowingly deplatforms the user, unless the

censored content is obscene or constitutes a credible threat. The bill also requires

a social media platform 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.

Under the bill, a social media platform must publish the standards it uses for

determining how to censor, deplatform, and shadow ban users on the platform. A

social media platform must apply censorship, deplatforming, and shadow banning

standards in a consistent manner among its users on the platform.

The bill also requires a social media platform to inform each user about any