Big Tech Accountability Act

1041. False information about essential government services or processes

(a) In general. Whoever, in interstate or foreign commerce, knowingly conveys or disseminates fraudulent civic misinformation, for the purpose or with the reasonable expectation of causing other persons to believe and rely or act upon such information, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.

(b) Publishing entity liability. Any publishing entity, or person acting on behalf of such publishing entity who, in interstate or foreign commerce, aids in the dissemination of fraudulent civic misinformation that violates subsection (a) of this section, by— shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.

(1) knowingly disseminating, publishing, or broadcasting fraudulent civic misinformation; or

(2) conducting individualized targeting to disseminate, publish, or broadcast fraudulent civic misinformation,

(c) Definitions. In this section:

(1) Fraudulent civic misinformation. The term fraudulent civic misinformation means—

(A) materially false, fraudulent, or misleading information pertaining to essential government services or processes, including government services concerning public health and safety, voting and voter registration, elections, the census, civil rights, and education; or

(B) data, guidance, or information that is materially false, fraudulent, or misleading and that is falsely attributed to a government agency, or falsely asserted to have been sanctioned or authored by a government agency.

(2) Individualized targeting. The term individualized targeting—

(A) means a publishing entity—

(i) performs or causes to perform any computational process (including one based on algorithmic models, machine learning, statistical analysis, or other data processing or artificial intelligence techniques) designed to transmit or display, highlight, emphasize, or make more prominent, the content to a subset of the users of such platform selected based on personal information pertaining to the individuals who make up the subset of users; or

(ii) allows another person or entity to instruct a publishing entity to transmit or display, highlight, emphasize, or make more prominent, the content to a subset of the users of such publishing entity, including by providing to such person a list of individuals, contact information of individuals, or other personal information that can be used to identify individuals; and

(B) does not include when a publishing entity displays, highlights, emphasizes, or makes more prominent, content in direct response to requests made or search terms entered by an individual, such that any individual making such requests or entering such search terms would produce the same display.

(3) Personal information. The term personal information means any information that is linked or reasonably linkable to a specific individual or a specific device, including an individual’s actual or perceived characteristics or demographics and information that may be derived from such individual’s internet browsing history, and including de-identified information.

(4) Publishing entity. The term publishing entity means any print publisher, radio-broadcast licensee, broadcast, cable, or local television station, provider of an interactive computer service (as such term is defined in section 230(f)(2) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 230(f)(2))), covered online platform (as such term is defined in section 232(e)(1) of the Communications Act of 1934), or agency or medium for the dissemination of advertising.

1042. Civil penalties, injunction, and damages for violations of section 1041

(a) Civil enforcement by the attorney general. The Attorney General may bring a civil action in the appropriate United States district court against any person who engages in conduct constituting an offense under subsection (a) or (b) of section 1041 and, upon proof of such conduct by a preponderance of the evidence, such person shall be subject to a civil penalty of not more than $50,000 for each violation or the amount of compensation which the person received or offered for the prohibited conduct, whichever amount is greater.

(b) Injunctive relief. If the Attorney General has reason to believe that a person is engaged in conduct constituting an offense under subsection (a) or (b) of section 1041, the Attorney General may petition an appropriate United States district court for an order prohibiting that person from engaging in such conduct. The court may issue an order prohibiting that person from engaging in such conduct if the court finds that the conduct constitutes such an offense.

(c) Civil action. Whoever engages in conduct constituting an offense under subsection (a) or subsection (b) of section 1041 is liable in a civil action—

(1) to any person incurring expenses incident to any emergency or investigative response to the conduct that violated subsection (a) of section 1041;

(2) to any person incurring expenses incident to any efforts required to correct the fraudulent civic misinformation;

(3) to any person incurring injury, illness, or loss of life, loss of personal property, loss of an opportunity to vote in an election, loss of civil rights, loss or denial of government services, or expenses, including medical or legal expenses, as a result of the fraudulent civic misinformation; or

(4) to any person injured for injunctive or other equitable relief.

(d) Rule of construction. Nothing in this section shall be construed to preclude any other criminal or civil statutory, common law, or administrative remedy, which is available by law to the United States or any other person.