AB 893

This bill prohibits a social media website from censoring, deplatforming, or

shadow banning a journalistic enterprise on the basis of the content of its publication

or broadcast. The bill applies to social media websites or applications that enable

users to communicate with each other and that have more than 150 million users.

The bill defines a “journalistic enterprise” as an entity that publishes more than

10,000 words online with at least 5,000 paid subscribers or 10,000 monthly active

users, publishes more than 100 hours of audio or video online with at least 100

million viewers annually, operates a cable television channel that provides more

than 40 hours of content per week to more than 100,000 cable television subscribers,

or operates under a broadcast license issued by the Federal Communications

Commission.

Under the bill, a social media website must also provide a mechanism for a

journalistic enterprise to request the number of other individual users who were

provided or shown the journalistic enterprise's content or posts, and to provide that

number to the journalistic enterprise upon request.

The bill also allows a journalistic enterprise to bring a private cause of action

against a social media website if the website violates the bill's requirements. The bill

provides that, in a private cause of action, a court may award statutory damages of

up to $100,000 for each proven violation, actual damages, punitive damages if

aggravating factors exist, other forms of equitable relief, and costs and attorney fees.