Social media companies: terms of service.

Existing law requires an operator of a commercial website or online service that collects personally identifiable information through the internet about individual consumers residing in California who use or visit its commercial website or online service to make its privacy policy available to consumers, as specified. This bill would require a social media company, as defined, to post their terms of service for each social media platform, as defined, owned or operated by the company in a specified manner and with additional specified information, subject to certain exceptions. The bill would define "terms of service" to mean 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, as defined. This bill would also require the social media company to submit reports, as specified, starting no later than January 1, 2024, to the Attorney General. The bill would specify the information required by the reports, including, but not limited to, the current version of the terms of service for each social media platform owned or operated by the company, specified categories of content and what policies the social media company has for that platform to address that content, and data related to violations of the terms of service for each platform. The bill would require the Attorney General to make all terms of service reports submitted pursuant to those provisions available to the public in a searchable repository on its official internet website. The bill would state the intent of the Legislature that a social media company that violates the above provisions shall be subject to meaningful remedies sufficient to induce compliance with these provisions, and would specify civil penalties that a company shall be liable for if the bill's provisions are violated, and how the Attorney General or a city attorney may bring an action against violators. The bill would specify that the duties, obligations, remedies, and penalties imposed by the bill are cumulative to existing law.