Stricken language would be deleted from and underlined language would be added to present law.
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State of Arkansas 1
94th General Assembly A Bill 2
Regular Session, 2023 SENATE BILL 396 3
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By: Senators Dees, J. Petty 5
By: Representative Eubanks 6
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For An Act To Be Entitled 8
AN ACT TO CREATE THE SOCIAL MEDIA SAFETY ACT; TO 9
REQUIRE AGE VERIFICA TION FOR USE OF SOCI AL MEDIA; TO 10
CLARIFY LIABILITY FO R FAILURE TO PERFORM AGE 11
VERIFICATION FOR USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA AND ILLEGAL 12
RETENTION OF DATA; A ND FOR OTHER PURPOSES. 13
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Subtitle 16
TO CREATE THE SOCIAL MEDIA SAFETY ACT; TO 17
REQUIRE AGE VERIFICATION FOR USE OF 18
SOCIAL MEDIA; AND TO CLARIFY LIABILITY 19
FOR FAILURE TO PERFORM AGE VERIFICATION 20
FOR USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA AND ILLEGAL 21
RETENTION OF DATA. 22
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BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ARKANSAS: 25
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SECTION 1. Arkansas Code Title 4, Chapter 88, is amended to add an 27
additional subchapter to read as follows: 28
Subchapter 11 — Regulation of Social Media 29
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4-88-1101. Definitions. 31
As used in this subchapt er: 32
(1) "Account holder" means an individual who has or creates an 33
account or a profile to use a social media platform; 34
(2) "Arkansas user" means an individual who is a resident of the 35
State of Arkansas and who accesses or attempts to access a social media 36 SB396
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platform while present in this state by accessing the social media platform 1
using an Arkansas internet protocol address or otherwise known or believed to 2
be in this state while using the social media platform; 3
(3)(A) "Commercial entity" means a c orporation, limited 4
liability company, partnership, limited partnership, sole proprietorship, or 5
other legally recognized entity. 6
(B) "Commercial entity" includes a third party vendor; 7
(4) "Digitized identification card" means a data file available 8
on a mobile device that has connectivity to the internet through a state -9
approved application that allows the mobile device to download the data file 10
from the Office of Driver Services that contains all of the data elements 11
visible on the face and back of a driver's license or identification card and 12
displays the current status of the driver's license or identification card, 13
including valid, expired, cancelled, suspended, revoked, active, or inactive; 14
(5) "Minor" means an individual under eighteen (18) y ears of 15
age; 16
(6) "Reasonable age verification" means to confirm that a person 17
seeking to access a social media platform is at least eighteen (18) years 18
old; 19
(7)(A) "Social media company" means an online forum that a 20
company makes available for an acc ount holder to: 21
(i) Create a profile; 22
(ii) Upload or create posts or content; 23
(iii) View posts or content of other account 24
holders; and 25
(iv) Interact with other account holders or users. 26
(B) "Social media company" does not include a company that 27
is controlled by a business entity that has generated less than one hundred 28
million dollars ($100,000,000) in annual gross revenue; 29
(8)(A) "Social media platform" means a public or semipublic 30
internet-based service or application: 31
(i) That has users in Arkansas; and 32
(ii)(a) On which a substantial function of the 33
service or application is to connect users in order to allow users to 34
interact socially with each other within the service or application. 35
(b) A service or application that provides 36 SB396
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email or direct messaging shall not be considered to meet the criteria under 1
subdivision (8)(A)(ii)(a) of this section on the basis of that function 2
alone. 3
(B) "Social media platform" does not include an onli ne 4
service, a website, or an application if the predominant or exclusive 5
function is: 6
(i) Email; 7
(ii) Direct messaging consisting of messages, 8
photos, or videos that are sent between devices by electronic means if 9
messages are: 10
(a) Shared between the sender and the 11
recipient or recipients; 12
(b) Only visible to the sender and the 13
recipient or recipients; and 14
(c) Are not posted publicly; 15
(iii) A streaming service that: 16
(a) Provides only licensed media in a 17
continuous flow from the service, website, or application to the end user; 18
and 19
(b) Does not obtain a license to the media 20
from a user or account holder by agreement of the streaming service's terms 21
of service; 22
(iv) News, sports, entertainment, or other content 23
that is preselected by the provider and not user generated, including without 24
limitation if any chat, comment, or interactive functionality that is 25
provided is incidental to, directly related to, or dependent upon provision 26
of the content; 27
(v) Online shopping or e-commerce, if the 28
interaction with other users or account holders is generally limited to: 29
(a) The ability to post and comment on 30
reviews; 31
(b) The ability to display lists or 32
collections of goods for sale or wish lists; and 33
(c) Other functions that are focused on online 34
shopping or e-commerce rather than interaction between users or account 35
holders; 36 SB396
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(vi) Business-to-business software that is not 1
accessible to the general public; 2
(vii) Cloud storage; 3
(viii) Shared document collaboration; 4
(ix) Providing access to or interacting with data 5
visualization platforms, libraries, or hubs; 6
(x) To permit comments on a digital news website, if 7
the news content is posted only by the provider of the digital news website; 8
(xi) For the purpose of providing or obtaining 9
technical support for the social media company’s social media platform, 10
products, or services; or 11
(xii) Academic or scholarly research: 12
(a) If: 13
(1) The majority of the content is 14
posted or created by the provider of the online service, website, or 15
application; and 16
(2) The ability to chat, comment, or 17
interact with other users is directly related to the provider’s content; 18
(b) That is a classified advertising service 19
that only permits the sale of goods and prohibits the solicitation of 20
personal services; or 21
(c) That is used by and under the direction of 22
an educational entity, including without limitation a: 23
(1) Learning management system; 24
(2) Student engagement program; and 25
(3) Subject-specific or skill-specific 26
program. 27
(C) "Social media platform" does not include a social 28
media platform that is controlled by a business entity that has generated 29
less than one hundred million dollars ($100,000,000) in annual gross revenue; 30
and 31
(9) "User" means a person who has access to view all or some of the 32
posts and content on a social media platform but is not an account holder. 33
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4-88-1102. Social media platforms — Reasonable age verification 35
methods — Parental consent required. 36 SB396
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(a) A social media company shall not permit an Arkansas user who is a 1
minor to be an account holder on the social media company's social media 2
platform unless the minor has the express consent of a parent or legal 3
guardian. 4
(b)(1) A social media company shall verify the age of an account 5
holder. 6
(2) If an account holder is a minor, the social media company 7
shall confirm that a minor has consent under subsection (a) of this section 8
to become a new account holder, at the time an Arkansas user opens the 9
account. 10
(c)(1) A social media company shall use a third party vendor to 11
perform reasonable age verification before allowing access to the social 12
media company's social media platform. 13
(2) Reasonable age verifica tion methods under subdivision (c)(1) 14
of this section include providing: 15
(A) A digitized identification card, including a digital 16
copy of a driver's license under § 27 -16-601 et seq.; 17
(B) Government-issued identification; or 18
(C) Any commerciall y reasonable age verification method. 19
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4-88-1103. Liability for social media companies. 21
(a)(1) A social media company that knowingly violates this subchapter 22
is liable if the social media company fails to perform a reasonable age 23
verification. 24
(2) If a social media company performs a reasonable age 25
verification, the social media company shall not retain any identifying 26
information of the individual after access to the social media platform has 27
been granted. 28
(b) A social media company that violates this subchapter is liable to 29
an individual for damages resulting from a minor accessing a social media 30
platform, including court costs and reasonable attorney's fees as ordered by 31
the court. 32
(c) A social media company that is found to have knowingly reta ined 33
identifying information of an individual after access to the social media 34
platform has been granted is liable to the individual for damages resulting 35
from retaining the identifying information, including court costs and 36 SB396
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reasonable attorney's fees as o rdered by the court. 1
(d) This section does not: 2
(1) Apply to a news or public interest broadcast, website video, 3
report, or event; 4
(2) Affect the rights of a news -gathering organization; or 5
(3) Apply to cloud service providers. 6
(e) An internet service provider, or any of its affiliates or 7
subsidiaries, or search engines, shall not violate this subchapter solely by 8
providing access, connection to or from a website, or other information or 9
content on the internet, or a facility, system, or networ k that is not under 10
that internet service provider's control, including transmission, 11
downloading, intermediate storage, access software, or other service that 12
provides access or connectivity, to the extent the internet service provider 13
is not responsible for the creation of the content or the communication on a 14
social media platform. 15
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4-88-1104. Liability for commercial entity or third party vendor. 17
(a) A commercial entity or third party vendor shall not retain any 18
identifying information of an individ ual after access to the social media 19
platform has been granted. 20
(b) A commercial entity that is found to have knowingly retained 21
identifying information of an individual after access to the material is 22
granted is liable to the individual for damages resulting from the retention 23
of the identifying information, including court costs and reasonable 24
attorney's fees as ordered by the court. 25
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