II
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 61
To require the Secretary of Homeland Security to implement a strategy
to combat the efforts of transnational criminal organizations to recruit
individuals in the United States via social media platforms and other
online services and assess their use of such platforms and services for
illicit activities, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY24 (legislative day, JANUARY3), 2023
Ms. S
INEMA(for herself, Mr. LANKFORD, Mr. KELLY, and Mr. HAGERTY) in-
troduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Com-
mittee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
A BILL
To require the Secretary of Homeland Security to implement
a strategy to combat the efforts of transnational criminal
organizations to recruit individuals in the United States
via social media platforms and other online services and
assess their use of such platforms and services for illicit
activities, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Combating Cartels on 4
Social Media Act of 2023’’. 5
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SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 1
In this Act: 2
(1) A
PPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT -3
TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-4
mittees’’ means— 5
(A) the Committee on Homeland Security 6
and Governmental Affairs of the Senate; and 7
(B) the Committee on Homeland Security 8
of the House of Representatives. 9
(2) C
OVERED OPERATOR .—The term ‘‘covered 10
operator’’ means the operator, developer, or pub-11
lisher of a covered service. 12
(3) C
OVERED SERVICE.—The term ‘‘covered 13
service’’ means— 14
(A) a social media platform; 15
(B) a mobile or desktop service with direct 16
or group messaging capabilities, but not includ-17
ing text messaging services without other sub-18
stantial social functionalities or electronic mail 19
services, that the Secretary determines is, has 20
been, or will be used by transnational criminal 21
organizations in connection with matters de-22
scribed in section 3; and 23
(C) a digital platform, or an electronic ap-24
plication utilizing the digital platform, involving 25
real-time interactive communication between 26
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multiple individuals, including multi-player 1
gaming services and immersive technology plat-2
forms or applications, that the Secretary deter-3
mines is, has been, or will be used by 4
transnational criminal organizations in connec-5
tion with matters described in section 3. 6
(4) D
EPARTMENT.—The term ‘‘Department’’ 7
means the Department of Homeland Security. 8
(5) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 9
the Secretary of Homeland Security. 10
SEC. 3. ASSESSMENT OF ILLICIT USAGE. 11
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after the 12
date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall submit 13
to the appropriate congressional committees an assess-14
ment describing— 15
(1) the use of covered services by transnational 16
criminal organizations or criminal enterprises acting 17
on their behalf to engage in recruitment efforts, in-18
cluding the recruitment of individuals, including in-19
dividuals under the age of 18, located in the United 20
States to engage in or provide support with respect 21
to illicit activities occurring in the United States, 22
Mexico, or otherwise in proximity to an international 23
boundary of the United States; 24
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(2) the use of covered services by transnational 1
criminal organizations to engage in other illicit ac-2
tivities or other conduct in support of illicit activi-3
ties, including— 4
(A) smuggling or trafficking involving nar-5
cotics, other controlled substances, precursors 6
thereof, or other items prohibited under the 7
laws of the United States, Mexico, or another 8
relevant jurisdiction, including firearms; and 9
(B) human smuggling or trafficking; 10
(3) the existing efforts of the Secretary and rel-11
evant government and law enforcement entities to 12
counter, monitor, or otherwise respond to the usage 13
of covered services described in paragraphs (1) and 14
(2); 15
(4) the existing efforts of covered operators to 16
counter, monitor, or otherwise respond to the usage 17
of covered services described in paragraphs (1) and 18
(2); and 19
(5) the existing cooperative efforts between the 20
Secretary, other relevant government entities, and 21
covered operators with respect to the matters de-22
scribed in paragraphs (1) and (2). 23
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SEC. 4. STRATEGY TO COMBAT CARTEL RECRUITMENT ON 1
SOCIAL MEDIA AND ONLINE PLATFORMS. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 3
date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall submit 4
to the appropriate congressional committees a strategy, to 5
be known as the National Strategy to Combat Illicit Re-6
cruitment Activity by Transnational Criminal Organiza-7
tions on Social Media and Online Platforms, to combat 8
the use of covered services by transnational criminal orga-9
nizations or criminal enterprises acting on their behalf to 10
recruit individuals located in the United States to engage 11
in or provide support with respect to illicit activities occur-12
ring in the United States, Mexico, or otherwise in prox-13
imity to an international boundary of the United States. 14
(b) E
LEMENTS.— 15
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The strategy required under 16
subsection (a) shall, at a minimum, include the fol-17
lowing: 18
(A) A proposal to improve cooperation and 19
thereafter maintain cooperation between the 20
Secretary, relevant law enforcement entities, 21
and appropriate covered operators with respect 22
to the matters described in subsection (a). 23
(B) Recommendations to implement the re-24
quirement under section 5(a)(2) to establish a 25
centralized mechanism for reporting informa-26
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tion regarding the United States recruitment 1
efforts of transnational criminal organizations 2
involving covered services. 3
(C) A proposal to improve 4
intragovernmental coordination with respect to 5
the matters described in subsection (a), includ-6
ing between the Department and State, Tribal, 7
and local governments. 8
(D) A proposal to improve coordination 9
within the Department and between the compo-10
nents of the Department with respect to the 11
matters described in subsection (a). 12
(E) Activities to facilitate increased intel-13
ligence analysis for law enforcement purposes of 14
efforts of transnational criminal organizations 15
to utilize covered services for recruitment pur-16
poses. 17
(F) Activities to foster international part-18
nerships and enhance collaboration with foreign 19
governments and, as applicable, multilateral in-20
stitutions with respect to the matters described 21
in subsection (a). 22
(G) Activities to facilitate proactive law en-23
forcement and other governmental efforts relat-24
ing to the efforts of transnational criminal or-25
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ganizations to utilize covered services for re-1
cruitment purposes, including activities in-2
tended to preempt through outreach and en-3
gagement the commission of criminal offenses 4
by individuals located in the United States who 5
are targeted for recruitment by those 6
transnational criminal organizations. 7
(H) Activities to specifically increase en-8
gagement and outreach with youth in border 9
communities, including regarding the recruit-10
ment tactics of transnational criminal organiza-11
tions and the consequences of participation in 12
illicit activities. 13
(2) L
IMITATION.—The strategy required under 14
subsection (a) shall not include legislative rec-15
ommendations or elements predicated on the passage 16
of legislation that is not enacted as of the date on 17
which the strategy is submitted under subsection 18
(a), including with respect to encryption policies or 19
reforms to section 230 of the Communications Act 20
of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 230). 21
(c) C
ONSULTATION.—In drafting and implementing 22
the strategy required under subsection (a), the Secretary 23
shall, at a minimum, consult and engage with— 24
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(1) the heads of relevant components of the De-1
partment, including— 2
(A) the Commissioner of U.S. Customs 3
and Border Protection; 4
(B) the Under Secretary for Intelligence 5
and Analysis; 6
(C) the Under Secretary for Science and 7
Technology; 8
(D) the Director of U.S. Immigration and 9
Customs Enforcement; 10
(E) the Officer for Civil Rights and Civil 11
Liberties; and 12
(F) the Privacy Officer; 13
(2) the Secretary of State; 14
(3) the Director of the Federal Bureau of In-15
vestigation; 16
(4) the Administrator of the Drug Enforcement 17
Agency; 18
(5) representatives of border communities, in-19
cluding representatives of— 20
(A) State, Tribal, and local governments, 21
including school districts and local law enforce-22
ment; and 23
(B) nongovernmental organizations; 24
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(6) covered operators, including representatives 1
of— 2
(A) social media platforms, including oper-3
ators of platforms or applications— 4
(i) displaying short-form videos cre-5
ated by users or third parties; 6
(ii) providing ephemeral content 7
transmission services; or 8
(iii) using algorithms or other means 9
of content prioritization to display a feed 10
of content or advertisements created by 11
users or third parties to other users; 12
(B) interactive entertainment platforms 13
and publishers; and 14
(C) companies developing immersive tech-15
nology platforms and applications on those plat-16
forms; and 17
(7) nongovernmental experts in the fields of— 18
(A) civil rights and civil liberties; 19
(B) online privacy; 20
(C) humanitarian assistance for migrants; 21
and 22
(D) youth outreach and rehabilitation. 23
(d) I
MPLEMENTATION.— 24
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(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after 1
the date on which the strategy required under sub-2
section (a) is submitted to the appropriate congres-3
sional committees, the Secretary shall commence im-4
plementation of the strategy. 5
(2) R
EPORT.— 6
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 180 7
days after the date on which the strategy re-8
quired under subsection (a) is implemented 9
under paragraph (1), and semiannually there-10
after for 5 years, the Secretary shall submit to 11
the appropriate congressional committees a re-12
port describing the efforts of the Secretary to 13
implement the strategy required under sub-14
section (a) and the progress of those efforts, 15
which shall include a description of— 16
(i) the recommendations, and cor-17
responding implementation of those rec-18
ommendations, with respect to the matters 19
described in subsection (b)(1)(B) relating 20
to the mechanism required under section 21
5(a)(2); 22
(ii) the interagency posture with re-23
spect to the matters covered by the strat-24
egy required under subsection (a), which 25
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shall include a description of collaboration 1
between the Secretary, other Federal enti-2
ties, State, local, and Tribal entities, and 3
foreign governments; 4
(iii) actions taken pursuant to sub-5
section (c) that occurred between the Sec-6
retary and the entities described in para-7
graphs (5) through (7) of that subsection, 8
provided that such summaries are provided 9
only in a classified or other non-public 10
manner; and 11
(iv) the threat landscape, including 12
new developments related to the United 13
States recruitment efforts of transnational 14
criminal organizations and the use by 15
those organizations of new or emergent 16
covered services and recruitment methods. 17
(B) F
ORM.—Each report required under 18
subparagraph (A) shall be submitted in unclas-19
sified form, but may contain a classified annex. 20
SEC. 5. INTELLIGENCE COLLECTION AND DISSEMINATION. 21
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after the 22
date on which the strategy required under section 4(a) is 23
required to be submitted to the appropriate congressional 24
committees, the Secretary shall identify a designee— 25
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(1) to receive, process, and disseminate infor-1
mation and communications involving the use of cov-2
ered services by transnational criminal organizations 3
or criminal enterprises acting on their behalf to re-4
cruit individuals located in the United States to en-5
gage in or provide support with respect to illicit ac-6
tivities occurring in the United States, Mexico, or 7
otherwise in proximity to an international boundary 8
of the United States; and 9
(2) to establish a mechanism, or if the designee 10
determines appropriate, multiple mechanisms, for 11
covered operators to voluntarily report relevant in-12
formation or communications described in paragraph 13
(1). 14
(b) P
ROCEDURE.—Upon the identification of the des-15
ignee and the establishment of the voluntary reporting 16
mechanism required under subsection (a)(2), the Sec-17
retary shall notify appropriate covered operators in writing 18
regarding the voluntary reporting mechanism, including 19
information regarding how to contact the designee and uti-20
lize the voluntary reporting mechanism. 21
(c) P
LACEMENT.—The designee identified under sub-22
section (a) shall be located in U.S. Customs and Border 23
Protection. 24
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(d) DISSEMINATION.—The designee identified under 1
subsection (a) shall utilize the information and commu-2
nications received pursuant to this section to— 3
(1) provide Federal, Tribal, State, and local en-4
tities with intelligence to assist with outreach and 5
engagement efforts intended to preempt the commis-6
sion of criminal offenses by individuals located in the 7
United States who are targeted by transnational 8
criminal organizations for recruitment; 9
(2) provide Federal, Tribal, State, and local law 10
enforcement with actionable intelligence for law en-11
forcement relating to the United States recruitment 12
efforts of transnational criminal organizations; and 13
(3) further other appropriate government func-14
tions involving efforts to prevent the recruitment of 15
individuals located in the United States by 16
transnational criminal organizations. 17
Æ
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