Algorithm Accountability Act

The "Algorithm Accountability Act" amends Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934 to introduce a significant limitation on liability protection for certain social media platforms. It establishes a new "duty of care" requiring providers to exercise reasonable care in the design, training, testing, deployment, operation, and maintenance of their recommendation-based algorithms . This duty aims to prevent reasonably foreseeable bodily injury or death to users, or inflicted by users, that is attributable, in whole or in part, to the algorithm's design or performance. A social media platform violating this duty of care loses its liability protection under Section 230(c)(1), opening it to legal action. Furthermore, individuals suffering bodily injury or death due to such a violation gain a private right of action to sue the platform for compensatory and punitive damages. The bill explicitly invalidates predispute arbitration agreements and waivers for these specific disputes, ensuring access to court, and includes exceptions for content sorted chronologically or initial search results, while also protecting First Amendment-protected speech.