The office of Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) announced on Wednesday that he and Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) introduced a bill aimed at increasing transparency from social-media companies.
Titled the “Platform Accountability and Transparency Act,” it would require such companies to disclose how their algorithms personalize content feeds and how companies determine which posts violate their content moderation policies.
Platforms would also need to disclose how much engagement content receives in two categories: “highly disseminated” content, defined as seen by at least 10,000 unique users; and content from “major public accounts,” defined as accounts with at least 25,000 followers or accounts whose posts reach at least 25,000 users a month.
The bill would also require disclosure of how long certain advertisements have appeared on their platform, who paid for them and how many recipients saw them.
Coons stated that “there are too many unknowns about their specific impacts and how they occur. We cannot let Big Tech grade its own homework.”
He said the bill “will give the public the power to understand the effects these platforms have on ourselves and our children, our democracy and our national security.”
The Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee are among the organizations that have endorsed the bill, according to Coons’s office.
“We need clarity on how platforms are addressing hate,” stated Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and national director of the Anti-Defamation League.
He added that the bill is “an important step toward giving the public, civil society and lawmakers meaningful visibility into how tech companies enforce their policies.”
