Algorithm Accountability Act

This bill amends Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934 to limit liability protections for certain social media platforms regarding their recommendation-based algorithms, creating a duty of care and a private right of action for bodily injury or death caused by such algorithms.

Sec. 2, Limitation of liability protection for certain social media platforms: This section adds a new subsection (f) to Section 230. It requires social media platform providers to exercise reasonable care in designing, training, testing, deploying, operating, and maintaining recommendation-based algorithms to prevent reasonably foreseeable bodily injury or death to a user or inflicted by a user on another person, arising from the algorithm's operation. This duty does not apply to chronological sorting or initial user search results. The section removes Section 230(c)(1) liability protection for providers that violate this duty. It creates a private right of action for individuals suffering bodily injury or death due to such a violation, allowing them to sue for compensatory and punitive damages. Predispute arbitration agreements and joint-action waivers are invalid for disputes under this subsection. The section defines a recommendation-based algorithm as an automated system that ranks, orders, promotes, recommends, amplifies, or curates content based on user personal data. It defines a social media platform as a for-profit interactive computer service with at least 1,000,000 registered users that allows users to create accounts or profiles to create, share, or view content and primarily serves as a service for user interaction with content, excluding email, direct messaging, private platforms for internal communication, teleconferencing, and platforms primarily for product reviews, e-commerce, music streaming, or news. The section also makes technical and conforming amendments to other laws to update cross-references to Section 230.