22677. (a) On a semiannual basis in accordance with subdivision (b), a social media company shall submit to the Attorney General a terms of service report. The terms of service report shall include, for each social media platform owned or operated by the company, all of the following:
(1) The current version of the terms of service of the social media platform.
(2) If a social media company has filed its first report, a complete and detailed description of any changes to the terms of service since the previous report.
(3) A statement of whether the current version of the terms of service defines each of the following categories of content, and, if so, the definitions of those categories, including any subcategories:
(A) Hate speech or racism.
(B) Extremism or radicalization.
(C) Disinformation or misinformation.
(D) Harassment.
(E) Foreign political interference.
(4) A detailed description of content moderation practices used by the social media company for that platform, including, but not limited to, all of the following:
(A) Any existing policies intended to address the categories of content described in paragraph (3).
(B) How automated content moderation systems enforce terms of service of the social media platform and when these systems involve human review.
(C) How the social media company responds to user reports of violations of the terms of service.
(D) How the social media company would remove individual pieces of content, users, or groups that violate the terms of service, or take broader action against individual users or against groups of users that violate the terms of service.
(E) The languages in which the social media platform does not make terms of service available, but does offer product features, including, but not limited to, menus and prompts.
(5) (A) Information on content that was flagged by the social media company as content belonging to any of the categories described in paragraph (3), including all of the following:
(i) The total number of flagged items of content.
(ii) The total number of actioned items of content.
(iii) The total number of actioned items of content that resulted in action taken by the social media company against the user or group of users responsible for the content.
(iv) The total number of actioned items of content that were removed, demonetized, or deprioritized by the social media company.
(v) The number of times actioned items of content were viewed by users.
(vi) The number of times actioned items of content were shared, and the number of users that viewed the content before it was actioned.
(vii) The number of times users appealed social media company actions taken on that platform and the number of reversals of social media company actions on appeal disaggregated by each type of action.
(B) All information required by subparagraph (A) shall be disaggregated into the following categories:
(i) The category of content, including any relevant categories described in paragraph (3).
(ii) The type of content, including, but not limited to, posts, comments, messages, profiles of users, or groups of users.
(iii) The type of media of the content, including, but not limited to, text, images, and videos.
(iv) How the content was flagged, including, but not limited to, flagged by company employees or contractors, flagged by artificial intelligence software, flagged by community moderators, flagged by civil society partners, and flagged by users.
(v) How the content was actioned, including, but not limited to, actioned by company employees or contractors, actioned by artificial intelligence software, actioned by community moderators, actioned by civil society partners, and actioned by users.
(b) (1) A social media company shall electronically submit a semiannual terms of service report pursuant to subdivision (a), covering activity within the third and fourth quarters of the preceding calendar year, to the Attorney General no later than April 1 of each year, and shall electronically submit a semiannual terms of service report pursuant to subdivision (a), covering activity within the first and second quarters of the current calendar year, to the Attorney General no later than October 1 of each year.
(2) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), a social media company shall electronically submit its first terms of service report pursuant to subdivision (a), covering activity within the third quarter of 2023, to the Attorney General no later than January 1, 2024, and shall electronically submit its second terms of service report pursuant to subdivision (a), covering activity within the fourth quarter of 2023, to the Attorney General no later than April 1, 2024. A social media platform shall submit its third report no later than October 1, 2024, in accordance with paragraph (1).
(c) The Attorney General shall make all terms of service reports submitted pursuant to this section available to the public in a searchable repository on its official internet website.
(Added by Stats. 2022, Ch. 269, Sec. 2. (AB 587) Effective January 1, 2023.)
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