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