Algorithm Accountability Act

Key Points

• Congress introduced a plan to hold social media companies responsible if the computer programs that suggest content to users lead to physical injury or death. This would change long-standing rules that usually protect these companies from being sued over what people see on their sites.
• Large social media platforms with more than 1 million users would be required to carefully design and test their recommendation systems. The goal is to make sure these systems do not promote dangerous activities or content that a reasonable person could see might cause someone to get hurt.
• If someone is injured or killed because of how a recommendation program worked, they or their family could sue the company for money in federal court. The bill also prevents companies from using "fine print" contracts to block these lawsuits or force them into private meetings instead of a public courtroom.
• These new rules would only apply to programs that suggest content based on a user's personal data. They would not apply to simple searches, posts shown in the order they were shared, or smaller websites and apps used for things like shopping, email, and news.