Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) and Don Bacon (R-Neb.) announced legislation on Wednesday designed to counter Jew-hatred on social media and the use of those platforms by terrorist groups.
Backed by the Anti-Defamation League, the bill would impose a daily $5 million fine on social-media companies that fail to report publicly on violations of their terms of service and how they are addressing those violations.
“We’re announcing a new tool in our online arsenal to protect our nation against terrorist organizations and adversaries that continue to innovate and threaten us in new ways,” Gottheimer stated. “Using social media platforms, state sponsors of terror and their proxies, especially Iran, Hamas and its affiliates, are turning online content into a tool of propaganda and disinformation.”
“There’s no reason why anyone, especially terrorists or anyone online, should access social media platforms to promote radical, hate-filled violence,” he said. “Social-media companies can no longer hide the crimes taking place on their platforms, especially when they pose a threat to America’s national security.”
Bacon argued that antisemitic online content is creating a false permission structure for young people to engage in Jew-hatred.
“We need to work with our social media companies to clean this up, because what is going on is wrong,” the Nebraska Republican said. “We need to hold these companies accountable and work with them to take it off the airwaves.”
A previous version of the legislation, known as the Stopping Terrorists Online Presence and Holding Accountable Tech Entities (STOP HATE) Act, which Gottheimer and Bacon introduced in 2023, would have allowed the U.S. attorney general to bring a civil action of up to $5 million per violation daily against social media companies that fail to provide the attorney general with a triannual report on violations of their terms of service.
The new bill defines a social-media company as any entity regulated by the Federal Trade Commission, an independent U.S. agency, and that has at least 25 million unique monthly users in the United States.
That would likely affect dozens of companies based in the United States or with a U.S. presence.
Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and national director of the ADL, said those requirements would not be onerous for large tech companies like Meta and X.
“It is hard to build a trillion-dollar business. It is hard to build products that reach billions of people every day,” Greenblatt said. “You know what’s easy? To knock off the Nazis. That’s not so hard.”
“These are the most sophisticated, the most profitable businesses, not just in capitalism today, but in the history of capitalism,” he said. “We’re not asking for them to change their businesses. We’re just asking for them to get it right.”
