II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 626
To improve the communications between social media platforms and law
enforcement agencies, to establish the Federal Trade Commission Plat-
form Safety Advisory Committee, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY19, 2025
Mr. S
COTTof Florida (for himself and Mrs. SHAHEEN) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Com-
merce, Science, and Transportation
A BILL
To improve the communications between social media plat-
forms and law enforcement agencies, to establish the
Federal Trade Commission Platform Safety Advisory
Committee, 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 ‘‘Stopping Online Con-4
fusion for Investigative Agencies and Law-enforcement by 5
Maintaining Evidence Determined Interparty Arrange-6
ments Act’’ or the ‘‘SOCIAL MEDIA Act’’. 7
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SEC. 2. BETTER INVESTIGATION COMMUNICATIONS. 1
(a) L
AWENFORCEMENT PORTAL.—Not later than 2
90 days after the date of enactment of this Act, each social 3
media platform shall— 4
(1) create a law enforcement portal that meets 5
the requirements described in subsection (b) to pro-6
vide— 7
(A) clear information to law enforcement 8
on who in the company to contact regarding 9
any law enforcement matter; and 10
(B) if the company has outsourced their 11
law enforcement compliance work to a third 12
party, the contact information of the third 13
party; and 14
(2) publish on the homepage of the social media 15
platform a link to such law enforcement portal. 16
(b) R
EQUIREMENTS.—The law enforcement portal 17
created under subsection (a) shall include— 18
(1) the name of and contact information for the 19
lead point of contact for law enforcement for the so-20
cial media platform; 21
(2) the phone number (which shall connect to 22
a United States-based call center that is staffed on 23
a 24/7 basis) and email address a law enforcement 24
agency may use to contact the social media platform; 25
and 26
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(3) clear policy information related to law en-1
forcement investigations, such as what, if any, notice 2
is provided to the users of such platform in connec-3
tion with any law enforcement investigation and 4
when such notice is provided. 5
SEC. 3. IMPROVING DATA COLLECTION AND REPORTING. 6
(a) FTC P
LATFORM SAFETYADVISORYCOM-7
MITTEE.— 8
(1) E
STABLISHMENT.— 9
(A) I
N GENERAL.—There is established the 10
Federal Trade Commission Platform Safety Ad-11
visory Committee (in this section referred to as 12
the ‘‘Advisory Committee’’). 13
(B) P
URPOSE.—The purpose of the Advi-14
sory Committee is to provide recommendations 15
to the Commission for the development of uni-16
form reporting metrics on— 17
(i) social media platforms’— 18
(I) monitoring or removal of ille-19
gal or illicit content on their plat-20
forms; and 21
(II) collaboration with or referral 22
to law enforcement regarding such 23
content; and 24
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(ii) the responsiveness of such social 1
media platforms to law enforcement inquir-2
ies and other relevant metrics as deter-3
mined by the Commission. 4
(2) M
EMBERSHIP.— 5
(A) C
OMPOSITION.—The Advisory Com-6
mittee shall be composed of 11 members, each 7
appointed by the Chair, to serve 3-year terms— 8
(i) 1 of whom shall be a representa-9
tive from the Commission; 10
(ii) 1 of whom shall be a representa-11
tive from the Drug Enforcement Adminis-12
tration; 13
(iii) 1 of whom shall be a representa-14
tive from U.S. Immigration and Customs 15
Enforcement, Homeland Security Inves-16
tigations; 17
(iv) 1 of whom shall be a representa-18
tive of social media platforms; 19
(v) 1 of whom shall be a representa-20
tive of local law enforcement agencies; 21
(vi) 1 of whom shall be a representa-22
tive of transparency advocates that comes 23
from a nonprofit, non-governmental orga-24
nization (commonly referred to as an 25
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‘‘NGO’’), or think tank which does not re-1
ceive more than 10 percent of their fund-2
ing support (including the value of any in- 3
kind contribution) from a social media 4
platform or related company; 5
(vii) 1 of whom shall be a representa-6
tive from a State investigative agency; 7
(viii) 1 of whom shall be a representa-8
tive from the Federal Bureau of Investiga-9
tion; 10
(ix) 1 of whom shall be a representa-11
tive of victims or a victim’s advocacy orga-12
nization which does not receive funding 13
support from a social media platform or 14
related company; 15
(x) 1 of whom shall be a representa-16
tive from the United States Marshals Serv-17
ice; and 18
(xi) 1 of whom shall be a representa-19
tive of the Criminal Division of the De-20
partment of Justice. 21
(B) D
ATE.—The Chair shall make the ap-22
pointments described in subparagraph (A) as 23
soon as possible after the date of enactment of 24
this Act. 25
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(C) TERM LIMITATION.—An individual 1
may not serve more than 3 terms as a member 2
of the Advisory Committee. 3
(D) N
O COMPENSATION FOR MEMBERS .— 4
Each member of the Advisory Committee shall 5
serve without compensation in addition to any 6
compensation received for the service of the 7
member as an officer or employee of the United 8
States, if applicable. 9
(3) D
UTIES.— 10
(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Advisory Com-11
mittee shall— 12
(i) provide recommendations to the 13
Commission on— 14
(I) developing and updating re-15
porting metrics in accordance with 16
subparagraph (B); and 17
(II) periodically updating, as the 18
Commission determines necessary, the 19
reporting metrics described in sub-20
clause (I) through notice and com-21
ment rulemaking; and 22
(ii) not later than 1 year after the 23
date of enactment of this Act, and annu-24
ally thereafter, publish, in a single, publicly 25
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available report that allows comparison be-1
tween social media platforms, the informa-2
tion provided under the reporting metrics 3
described in clause (i). 4
(B) R
EPORTING METRICS.—The reporting 5
metrics described in subparagraph (A)(i) shall 6
include, with respect to a social media plat-7
form— 8
(i) the number of accounts on which 9
the social media platform has identified an 10
advertisement for or promotion of counter-11
feit substances or fentanyl, including the 12
number of such accounts that were identi-13
fied— 14
(I) through a user report; and 15
(II) by the platform without the 16
use of a user report; 17
(ii) metrics relating to the social 18
media platform’s procedure, if any, for re-19
ferring to law enforcement any account 20
that advertises or otherwise promotes 21
counterfeit substances or fentanyl, includ-22
ing— 23
(I) whether the platform notifies 24
the account holder of such referral; 25
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(II) to which law enforcement 1
agencies the platform makes such re-2
ferral; and 3
(III) how many such referrals the 4
platform has made during the pre-5
vious 12-month period; 6
(iii) during the previous 12-month pe-7
riod, on average, the number of orders 8
under section 2703(d) of title 18, United 9
States Code, subpoenas, and search war-10
rants received by the social media platform 11
per month related to accounts on the plat-12
form that are being used for illicit activity; 13
(iv) the social media platform’s aver-14
age response time (not including any auto-15
mated response or response confirming re-16
ceipt by the platform) with respect to a 17
subpoena issued by a law enforcement 18
agency; and 19
(v) any other reporting metrics on ille-20
gal or illicit content (including human traf-21
ficking, child exploitation, or other crimes), 22
as determined appropriate by the Advisory 23
Committee. 24
(b) A
DOPTION OFREPORTINGMETRICS.— 25
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(1) REVIEW OF RECOMMENDATIONS .—Not later 1
than 30 days after the date on which the Advisory 2
Committee provides its recommendations to the 3
Commission under subsection (a)(3)(A)(i), the Com-4
mission shall submit to Congress a report that indi-5
cates— 6
(A) which recommendations of the Advi-7
sory Committee that the Commission imple-8
mented, plans to implement, or adopted; and 9
(B) which such recommendations the Com-10
mission did not implement, does not plan to im-11
plement, or does not adopt and a rationale for 12
that determination. 13
(2) G
UIDANCE TO SOCIAL MEDIA PLAT -14
FORMS.—Not later than 90 days after the Advisory 15
Committee provides its recommendations to the 16
Commission under subsection (a)(3)(A)(i), the Com-17
mission shall issue guidance to social media plat-18
forms describing the reporting metrics adopted by 19
the Commission. 20
(c) R
EPORTINGREQUIREMENT.—Not later than 180 21
days after the Commission issues guidance under sub-22
section (b)(2), and annually thereafter, each social media 23
platform shall submit to the Commission, in a publicly 24
available manner, a report that includes— 25
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(1) the reporting metrics required by the Com-1
mission as described in subsection (a)(3)(B); and 2
(2) a description of any efforts taken by the 3
platform to monitor advertisements or other infor-4
mation promoting illicit activity on an account on 5
the platform. 6
SEC. 4. ENFORCEMENT. 7
(a) U
NFAIR ORDECEPTIVEACTS ORPRACTICES.— 8
A violation of section 2(a) or 3(c) or a regulation promul-9
gated under this Act shall be treated as a violation of a 10
rule defining an unfair or deceptive act or practice under 11
section 18(a)(1)(B) of the Federal Trade Commission Act 12
(15 U.S.C. 57a(a)(1)(B)). 13
(b) P
OWERS OF THECOMMISSION.— 14
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided in para-15
graph (3), the Commission shall enforce this Act in 16
the same manner, by the same means, and with the 17
same jurisdiction, powers, and duties as though all 18
applicable terms and provisions of the Federal Trade 19
Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.) were incor-20
porated into and made a part of this Act. 21
(2) P
RIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES .—Except as 22
provided in paragraph (3), any person who violates 23
section 2(a) or 3(c) or a regulation promulgated 24
under this Act shall be subject to the penalties and 25
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entitled to the privileges and immunities provided in 1
the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et 2
seq.). 3
(3) C
OMMON CARRIERS AND NONPROFIT ORGA -4
NIZATIONS.—Notwithstanding section 4, 5(a)(2), or 5
6 of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 6
44, 45(a)(2), 46) or any jurisdictional limitation of 7
the Commission, the Commission shall also enforce 8
this Act, in the same manner provided in paragraphs 9
(1) and (2), with respect to— 10
(A) common carriers subject to the Com-11
munications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 151 et 12
seq.) and Acts amendatory thereof and supple-13
mentary thereto; and 14
(B) organizations not organized to carry 15
on business for their own profit or that of their 16
members. 17
(4) A
UTHORITY PRESERVED .—Nothing in this 18
Act shall be construed to limit the authority of the 19
Commission under any other provision of law. 20
(5) R
ULEMAKING.—The Commission shall pro-21
mulgate in accordance with section 553 of title 5, 22
United States Code, such rules as may be necessary 23
to carry out this Act. 24
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SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS. 1
In this Act: 2
(1) C
HAIR.—The term ‘‘Chair’’ means the 3
Chair of the Federal Trade Commission. 4
(2) C
OMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’ 5
means the Federal Trade Commission. 6
(3) C
ONTROLLED SUBSTANCE .—The term 7
‘‘controlled substance’’ has the meaning given that 8
term in section 102 of the Controlled Substances 9
Act (21 U.S.C. 802). 10
(4) C
OUNTERFEIT SUBSTANCE .—The term 11
‘‘counterfeit substance’’ has the meaning given that 12
term in section 102 of the Controlled Substances 13
Act (21 U.S.C. 802). 14
(5) I
LLICIT ACTIVITY.—The term ‘‘illicit activ-15
ity’’ means the unlawful production, manufacturing, 16
distribution, advertisement, or sale of a controlled 17
substance. 18
(6) S
OCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM .—The term ‘‘so-19
cial media platform’’— 20
(A) means a website or mobile web applica-21
tion that— 22
(i) permits a person to become a reg-23
istered user, establish an account, or create 24
a profile for the purpose of allowing the 25
user to create, share, and view user-gen-26
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erated content (including goods or services 1
offered for sale) through such an account 2
or profile; 3
(ii) enables 1 or more users to gen-4
erate content that can be viewed by other 5
users of the platform; and 6
(iii) primarily serves as a medium for 7
users to interact with content generated by 8
other users of the medium and for the 9
platform to deliver advertisements to users; 10
and 11
(B) includes a social network, an online 12
chat room or message board, an online market-13
place, and any other platform determined ap-14
propriate by the Commission. 15
Æ
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