II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 840
To hold accountable operators of social media platforms that intentionally
or knowingly host false election administration information.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH4, 2025
Mr. W
ELCH(for himself, Ms. HIRONO, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, Mr. MERKLEY, and
Mr. L
UJA´N) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and re-
ferred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
A BILL
To hold accountable operators of social media platforms that
intentionally or knowingly host false election administra-
tion information.
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 ‘‘Digital Integrity in 4
Democracy Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. EXCEPTION TO SECTION 230 IMMUNITY FOR SOCIAL 1
MEDIA PLATFORM OPERATORS HOSTING 2
FALSE ELECTION ADMINISTRATION INFOR-3
MATION. 4
Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 5
U.S.C. 230) is amended— 6
(1) in subsection (c)(1)— 7
(A) by striking ‘‘No provider’’ and insert-8
ing the following: 9
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided in 10
subparagraph (B), no provider’’; and 11
(B) by adding at the end the following: 12
‘‘(B) E
XCEPTION.—Subparagraph (A) 13
shall not apply with respect to false election ad-14
ministration information that the operator of a 15
social media platform intentionally or knowingly 16
hosts on the social media platform.’’; and 17
(2) in subsection (f), by adding at the end the 18
following: 19
‘‘(5) C
OVERED ELECTION.—The term ‘covered 20
election’ has the meaning given the term ‘election’ 21
under section 301(1) of the Federal Election Cam-22
paign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30101(1)). 23
‘‘(6) F
ALSE ELECTION ADMINISTRATION INFOR -24
MATION.— 25
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‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘false elec-1
tion administration information’, with respect 2
to a social media platform, means objectively in-3
correct information that— 4
‘‘(i) relates to— 5
‘‘(I) the time, place, or manner 6
of holding any covered election; or 7
‘‘(II) the qualifications for or re-8
strictions on voter eligibility for any 9
covered election, including— 10
‘‘(aa) any criminal, civil, or 11
other legal penalties associated 12
with voting in any covered elec-13
tion; or 14
‘‘(bb) information regarding 15
the registration status or eligi-16
bility of a voter; and 17
‘‘(ii) is publicly accessible on the so-18
cial media platform. 19
‘‘(B) P
OLITICAL SPEECH EXCLUDED .—The 20
term ‘false election administration information’ 21
does not include any content that relates to po-22
litical speech in favor of or against— 23
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‘‘(i) a candidate (as defined in section 1
301(2) of the Federal Election Campaign 2
Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30101(2))); 3
‘‘(ii) an individual who holds a Fed-4
eral office (as defined in section 301(3) of 5
the Federal Election Campaign Act of 6
1971 (52 U.S.C. 30101(3))); or 7
‘‘(iii) a political party. 8
‘‘(7) S
OCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM .—The term ‘so-9
cial media platform’ means a social media platform, 10
as defined in section 124(a)(2) of the Trafficking 11
Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization 12
Act of 2022 (42 U.S.C. 1862w(a)(2)), that had not 13
fewer than 25,000,000 unique monthly users in the 14
United States for a majority of the months during 15
the most recent 12-month period, except that such 16
section 124(a)(2) shall be applied by substituting ‘an 17
interactive computer service’ for ‘a website or inter-18
net medium’.’’. 19
SEC. 3. FALSE ELECTION ADMINISTRATION INFORMATION 20
REMOVAL PROCESS. 21
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 22
(1) E
LECTION DAY.—The term ‘‘election day’’ 23
means, with respect to any covered election (as de-24
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fined in section 230 of the Communications Act of 1
1934 (47 U.S.C. 230), as amended by section 2)— 2
(A) the date on which the covered election 3
is held; and 4
(B) any day during the period— 5
(i) beginning on the earlier of— 6
(I) the first day during which 7
early voting for such election is al-8
lowed; or 9
(II) the first day on which the 10
State distributes absentee ballots for 11
such election; and 12
(ii) ending on the date of such elec-13
tion. 14
(2) F
ALSE ELECTION ADMINISTRATION INFOR -15
MATION.—The term ‘‘false election administration 16
information’’ has the meaning given the term in sec-17
tion 230 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 18
U.S.C. 230), as amended by section 2. 19
(3) S
OCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM .—The term ‘‘so-20
cial media platform’’ has the meaning given the 21
term in section 230 of the Communications Act of 22
1934 (47 U.S.C. 230), as amended by section 2. 23
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(4) WRITTEN.—The term ‘‘written’’, with re-1
spect to a communication, includes a written elec-2
tronic communication. 3
(b) R
EMOVALPROCESS.— 4
(1) R
EMOVAL REQUIRED .—If an operator of a 5
social media platform receives a complete notifica-6
tion, in accordance with paragraph (2), that false 7
election administration information is being hosted 8
on the social media platform, the operator shall— 9
(A) determine whether the alleged false 10
election administration information is objec-11
tively incorrect; 12
(B) if the determination under subpara-13
graph (A) is that the alleged false election ad-14
ministration information is objectively incorrect, 15
remove the false election administration infor-16
mation— 17
(i) not later than 48 hours after re-18
ceiving the complete notification, if re-19
ceived on a day other than an election day; 20
or 21
(ii) not later than 24 hours after re-22
ceiving the complete notification, if re-23
ceived on an election day; and 24
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(C) not later than 12 hours after removing 1
false election administration information, pro-2
vide a written response to the complainant stat-3
ing that the operator removed the false election 4
administration information. 5
(2) N
OTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS .—A notifi-6
cation described in paragraph (1) shall— 7
(A) be a written notification submitted to 8
the operator of the social media platform; 9
(B) contain a description of the false elec-10
tion administration information being hosted on 11
the social media platform that is reasonably 12
sufficient for the operator to locate the false 13
election administration information; and 14
(C) contain the name and contact informa-15
tion of the complainant, including mailing ad-16
dress, telephone number, and email address. 17
(c) E
NFORCEMENT.— 18
(1) A
TTORNEY GENERAL CIVIL ACTION .—The 19
Attorney General may bring a civil action in an ap-20
propriate district court of the United States against 21
an operator of a social media platform that violates 22
subsection (b)(1) for— 23
(A) damages of $50,000 for each item of 24
false election administration information that 25
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was not removed by the operator in accordance 1
with that subsection; and 2
(B) injunctive relief relating to the removal 3
of false election administration information that 4
is the subject of the civil action. 5
(2) S
TATE CIVIL ACTION.—The attorney gen-6
eral or secretary of state of a State may bring a civil 7
action in an appropriate district court of the United 8
States against an operator of a social media plat-9
form that violates subsection (b)(1) with respect to 10
a covered election being held in that State for— 11
(A) damages of $50,000 for each item of 12
false election administration information that 13
was not removed by the operator in accordance 14
with that subsection; and 15
(B) injunctive relief relating to the removal 16
of false election administration information that 17
is the subject of the civil action. 18
(3) P
RIVATE RIGHT OF ACTION .—A candidate, 19
as defined in section 301 of the Federal Election 20
Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30101), aggrieved 21
by a violation of subsection (b)(1) may, after noti-22
fying the chief election official of the State involved, 23
bring a civil action in an appropriate district court 24
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of the United States against the operator of a social 1
media platform that committed the violation for— 2
(A) damages of $50,000 for each item of 3
false election administration information that 4
was not removed by the operator in accordance 5
with that subsection; and 6
(B) injunctive relief relating to the removal 7
of false election administration information that 8
is the subject of the civil action. 9
(d) S
AFEHARBORRELATING TOSECTION230 IM-10
MUNITYEXCEPTION.—Subparagraph (B) of section 11
230(c)(1) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 12
230(c)(1)), as added by section 2, shall not apply with 13
respect to false election administration information hosted 14
on a social media platform if the operator of the social 15
media platform— 16
(1) becomes aware of the information due to a 17
notification described in paragraph (2) of subsection 18
(b) of this section and removes the information in 19
accordance with paragraph (1) of that subsection; or 20
(2) becomes aware of the information through 21
means other than a notification described in sub-22
section (b)(2) of this section and removes the infor-23
mation— 24
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(A) not later than 48 hours after becoming 1
aware of the information, if it becomes so aware 2
on a day other than an election day; or 3
(B) not later than 24 hours after becoming 4
aware of the information, if it becomes so aware 5
on an election day. 6
SEC. 4. EFFECTIVE DATE. 7
This Act, and the amendments made by this Act, 8
shall apply with respect to any false election administra-9
tion information alleged to be hosted on a social media 10
platform on or after the date of enactment of this Act. 11
Æ
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