Amends TCA Title 3; Title 4; Title 8, Chapter 6; Title 29 and Title 47.

As described below, this bill enacts the "Social Media Accountable Censorship Act."<br /> <br /> This bill makes the owner or operator of a social media website who contracts with a social media website user in this state ("user") subject to a private right of action by the user if the social media website intentionally deletes or censors the user's religious or political speech or uses an algorithm to disfavor or censure the user's religious or political speech. A court may award a user who prevails in such an action up to $75,000 in statutory damages; actual damages; punitive damages if aggravating factors are present; costs and reasonable attorneys' fees; and other forms of equitable relief. However, this bill provides that a social media website that restores from deletion or removes the censoring of a user's speech within 72 hours of receipt of a request for restoration from deletion or removal of censorship from the affected user, or the user's agent, may use that fact to mitigate any damages sought. This bill also permits the attorney general to bring a civil cause of action on behalf of a user whose religious speech or political speech has been censored by a social media website. <br /> <br /> This bill clarifies that a user's alleged hate speech is not a legal justification for a social media website to engage in conduct that it prohibited by this bill, and the owner or operator of a social media website cannot raise a social media website user's alleged hate speech as a defense in an action brought under this bill. However, only users who are 18 or older have standing to seek enforcement of the rights created under this bill. This bill further creates the following exceptions that allow a social media website to delete or censor a user's speech or use algorithm to disfavor or censure speech that:<br /> <br /> (1) Calls for immediate acts of violence;<br /> <br /> (2) Is obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, or pornographic in nature, meaning an average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that, taken as a whole, the dominant theme of the material appeals to prurient interests;<br /> <br /> (3) Is the result of operational error;<br /> <br /> (4) Is the result of a court order;<br /> <br /> (5) Comes from an inauthentic source or involves false impersonation;<br /> <br /> (6) Entices criminal conduct;<br /> <br /> (7) Involves minors bullying minors;<br /> <br /> (8) Constitutes copyright or trademark infringement;<br /> <br /> (9) Is excessively violent; or <br /> <br /> (10) Constitutes harassment spam of a commercial, not religious or political nature; and <br /> <br /> (11) A user's censoring of another social media website user's speech. <br /> <br /> Under this bill, a "social media website" refers to an internet website or application that enables users to communicate with each other by posting information, comments, messages, or images, and that is open to the public; has more than 75 million subscribers with personal user profiles provided by the website; from its inception, has not been affiliated with any one religion or political party; provides a means or the users to report obscene materials and has in place procedures for evaluating those reports and removing obscene material; and allows for subscribers to sign up for a personal user profile page or account where beliefs and preferences can be expressed by the users; but does not include a website that merely permits members of the general public to pose comments on content published by the owner of the website.<br />