119-hr5681

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5681 Introduced in House

    (IH) ]

<DOC>

119th CONGRESS
 1st Session
 H. R. 5681

 To require the reporting of certain terms of service of social media 
 companies for purposes of limiting the online presence of terrorist 
 organizations.

_______________________________________________________________________

 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

 October 3, 2025

 Mr. Gottheimer (for himself and Mr. Bacon) introduced the following 
 bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and 
 in addition to the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, for a 
 period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for 
consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the 
 committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

 A BILL

 To require the reporting of certain terms of service of social media 
 companies for purposes of limiting the online presence of terrorist 
 organizations.

 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

 This Act may be cited as the ``Stopping Terrorists Online Presence 
and Holding Accountable Tech Entities Act of 2025'' or as the ``STOP 
HATE Act of 2025''.

SEC. 2. STOPPING TERRORISTS ONLINE PRESENCE AND HOLDING ACCOUNTABLE 
 TECH ENTITIES.

    (a) Terms of Service Publication.--

    (1) In general.--No later than 180 days after the date of 
 enactment of this section, each social media company described 
 in subsection

    (f)

    (4) shall publish terms of service, or lack 
 thereof, for each social media platform owned or operated by 
 the company in a manner reasonably designed to inform all users 
 of the social media platform of the existence and contents of 
 the terms of service applicable to the following:
        (A) A foreign terrorist organization designated 
 under 

section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality 
 Act.
        (B) Individuals or entities designated as Specially 
 Designated Global Terrorists under Executive Order 
 13224.

    (2) Additional publication of information.--In addition to 
 the terms of service published pursuant to paragraph

    (1) , the 
 social media company shall also publish the following 
 information:
        (A) Contact information for the purpose of allowing 
 users to ask the social media company questions about 
 the terms of service.
        (B) A description of--
            (i) the process that a user must follow--
            (I) to flag an item of content that 
 the user believes violates the terms of 
 service; or
            (II) to flag a group or another 
 user that the user believes has 
 violated the terms of service; and
            (ii) the social media company's commitments 
 on response and resolution time.
            (C) A list of ways in which an item of content or a 
 user may be actioned by the social media company.

    (b) Terms of Service Report to the Attorney General.--

    (1) In general.--Each social media company shall 
 electronically submit, on a triannual basis, a terms of service 
 report to the Attorney General pursuant to paragraph

    (2) , 
 regarding information and enforcement of the terms of service 
 identified in subsection

    (a)

    (1) , that will include the 
 following:
        (A) The version of the terms of service for each 
 social media platform owned or operated by the company 
 in effect as of the date of the report.
        (B) Data related to violations of the terms of 
 service of identified under subsection

    (a) , including 
 the following:
            (i) The total number of items of content 
 flagged.
            (ii) The total number of actioned items of 
 content.
            (iii) The total number of actioned items of 
 content that resulted in action taken by the 
 social media company against the user or group 
 of users responsible for the content.
            (iv) The total number of actioned items of 
 content that were removed, demonetized, or 
 deprioritized by the social media company.
            (v) The number of times actioned items of 
 content were viewed by users.
            (vi) The number of times actioned items of 
 content were shared, and the number of users 
 that viewed the content before it was actioned.
            (vii) The number of times users appealed 
 social media company actions taken on that 
 platform and the number of reversals of social 
 media company actions on appeal disaggregated 
 by each type of action.
            (C) All information required by subparagraph
        (B) shall be disaggregated into the following categories:
            (i) The category of content, including any 
 relevant categories described in subparagraph
        (B) .
            (ii) The type of content, including posts, 
 comments, messages, profiles of users, or 
 groups of users.
            (iii) The type of media of the content, 
 including text, images, and videos.
            (iv) How the content was flagged, including 
 whether the content was flagged by--
            (I) company employees or 
 contractors of the social media 
 company;
            (II) artificial intelligence 
 software;
            (III) community moderators of the 
 social media platform;
            (IV) civil society partners; or
            (V) users of the social media 
 platform.
            (v) How the content was actioned, including 
 whether the content was actioned by--
            (I) employees or contractors of the 
 social media company;
            (II) artificial intelligence 
 software;
            (III) community moderators of the 
 social media platform;
            (IV) civil society partners; and
            (V) actioned by users.
            (D) A complete and detailed evaluation of the 
 changes over time, including identifiable trends and 
 analysis, with respect to the information in 
 subparagraphs
        (A) through
            (C) since the previous 
 report, if applicable, and those thereafter.

    (2) Deadline.--Not later than 360 days after the date of 
 enactment of this section, each social media company shall 
 submit the first report required pursuant to paragraph

    (1) . 
 After the submission of the first report, the following reports 
 will occur no later than January 31, April 30, and October 31 
 the following years.

    (3) Publication.--The Attorney General shall make all 
 reports submitted under this section available to the public in 
 a searchable repository on the website of the Department of 
 Justice.
            (c) Civil Penalty.--

    (1) In general.--The Attorney General may bring an action 
 for a civil penalty of not more than $5,000,000 per violation 
 per day against any social media company that does not submit a 
 report required under subsection

    (b) .

    (2) Violations.--A social media company shall be considered 
 in violation of the provisions of this chapter for each day the 
 social media company does any of the following:
        (A) Fails to post terms of service in accordance 
 with subsection

    (a) .
        (B) Fails to timely submit to the Attorney General 
 a report required pursuant to subsection

    (b) .
            (C) Materially omits or misrepresents required 
 information in a report submitted pursuant to 
 subsection

    (b) .
            (d) Reports.--

    (1) National intelligence estimate.--Not later than 360 
 days after the date of enactment of this section, the Director 
 of National Intelligence shall submit a National Intelligence 
 Estimate on the use of platforms by the individuals and 
 entities identified under subsection

    (a)

    (1) to Congress. The 
 Director shall ensure an unclassified version of the assessment 
 is published on the Department's website no later than 30 days 
 following the submission to Congress.

    (2) Comptroller general reports.--Not later than 540 days 
 after the date of enactment of this section, and then again 540 
 days after, the Comptroller General shall submit to Congress 
 reports on the implementation of this section.

    (e) Sunset.--The authority to carry out this section shall 
terminate on the date that is 5 years after the date of enactment of 
this section.

    (f) 

=== Definitions. ===
-In this section:

    (1) Actioned.--The term ``actioned'' means that, pursuant 
 to a violation of the terms of service of a social media 
 platform--
        (A) in the case of an item of content, that item of 
 content was removed, demonetized, or deprioritized from 
 the social media platform; or
        (B) in the case of a user, that user was banned 
 from the social media platform, or the account of that 
 user was demonetized.

    (2) Content.--The term ``content'' means, on an internet-
 based service or application--
        (A) a statement or comment made by a user; or
        (B) media that are created, posted, shared, or 
 otherwise interacted with by a user.
 The term does not include media on a service or application 
 exclusively for the purpose of cloud storage, transmitting 
 files, or file collaboration.

    (3) Social media platform.--The term ``social media 
 platform'' means any entity subject to the jurisdiction of the 
 Federal Trade Commission under 

section 5

    (a)

    (2) of the Federal 
 Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 45

    (a)

    (2) ) that--
        (A) is a website, desktop application, or mobile 
 application that--
            (i) permits a person to become a registered 
 user, establish an account, or create a profile 
 for the purpose of allowing the user to create, 
 share, and view user-generated content through 
 such an account or profile;
            (ii) enables one or more users to generate 
 content that can be viewed by other users of 
 the platform; and
            (iii) primarily serves as a medium for 
 users to interact with content generated by 
 other users of the platform and for the 
 platform to deliver ads to users; and
        (B) has at least 25,000,000 unique monthly users in 
 the United States for a majority of the months in the 
 most recent 12-month period.

    (4) Social media company.--The term ``social media 
 company'' means a person or entity that owns or operates one or 
 more social media platforms.

    (5) Terms of service.--The term ``terms of service'' means 
 a policy or set of policies adopted by a social media company 
 that specifies, at least, the user behavior and activities that 
 are permitted on the internet-based service owned or operated 
 by the social media company, and the user behavior and 
 activities that may subject the user or an item of content to 
 being actioned.

    (g) Rule of Construction.--

    (1) In general.--Nothing in this section shall be construed 
 to diminish or infringe upon any right protected under the 
 First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

    (2) Confidentiality and privacy.--The publication of the 
 reports authorized in subsection
            (d) shall comply with any 
 Federal, State, and local laws affecting confidentiality and 
 privacy, including the Privacy Act of 1974.
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